Research Areas
Carbon Sequestration
"Carbon sequestration" is a family of methods for capturing and permanently isolating gases that otherwise could contribute to global climate change. Affordable and environmentally safe sequestration approaches could offer a way to stabilize atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide without requiring the United States and other countries to make large-scale and potentially costly changes to their energy infrastructures.
Carbon dioxide sequestration in geologic formations includes oil and gas reservoirs, un-mineable coal seams, and deep saline reservoirs. These structures have stored crude oil, natural gas, brine and carbon dioxide over millions of years. Many power plants and other large emitters of carbon dioxide are located near geologic formations that are amenable to carbon dioxide storage. Further, in many cases, injection of carbon dioxide into a geologic formation can enhance the recovery of hydrocarbons, providing value-added byproducts that can offset the cost of carbon dioxide capture and sequestration.