[biofuel] Canada - Burying CO2

MH 18 Jul 2004 15:38:58 -0000

 Project successful in burying greenhouse gas 
 By Phoebe Dey 
 www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/06/040627223647.htm 
 http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/expressnews/articles/news.cfm?p_ID=5906&s=0

June 25, 2004 - A new approach that is one of the first to successfully store
carbon dioxide underground may have huge implications for global warming
and the oil industry, says a University of Alberta researcher. Dr. Ben Rostron
is part of an extensive team working on the $28 million International Energy
Agency Weyburn CO2 Monitoring and Storage Project--the largest of its
kind--that has safely buried the greenhouse gas and reduced emissions from
entering the atmosphere.

ãItâs one thing to say that underground is a great place to store carbon
dioxide, but itâs another thing to be able to prove it as we have done,ä
said Rostron, from the U of Aâs Faculty of Science and a co-author on a paper
appearing today in GSA Today, a journal published by the Geological Society
of America. ãWe have been able to show that you can safely capture carbon
dioxide that would otherwise go back into the atmosphere, and put it back
into the ground. Itâs very exciting work.ä

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.
Its concentrations have increased as a result of human activity, such as
burning coal, oil, natural gas and organic matter. CO2 emissions have been
linked to global warming, and there has been a worldwide effort to reduce
those emissions and their effects on the planet. The efforts in the
Weyburn project are one way for Canada to meet targets under the
Kyoto Protocol, for example.

Carbon dioxide sequestration is being evaluated internationally as a
viable means of long-term storage. Rostron is part of the project
started in 2000 to investigate the technical and economic feasibility of
storing the gas in a partially depleted oil reservoir in Saskatchewan.
The researchers are working with Encana Corporation on their 30-year
commercial carbon dioxide enhanced oil recovery operation, which
is designed to recover an incremental 130 million barrels of oil from
the Weyburn field in Saskatchewan.

The gas comes from the United States, where it is compressed and sent
through a pipeline to the Weyburn field. There, Encana injects it into
the reservoir and the results are observed by the project scientists
and stakeholders--including regulatory agencies and government
officials. More than 1.9 billion cubic metres have been injected so far.

Not only has the project demonstrated one way for the industry to
economically reduce carbon dioxide emissions that would have otherwise
gone into the atmosphere, but it allows the oil industry to pump
carbon dioxide into its wells and produce extra oil, said Rostron.
The work also demonstrates that geological sequestration can be
successful, enabling wider application in other parts of the country
and the world, he added.

ãThe oil companies have seen incremental production close to what they
predicted and from the cientistsâ point-of-view, weâve been able to see
a response to our techniques and been able to monitor it very, very
closely,ä said Rostron, the hydrogeology co-ordinator on the project.
ãEverything weâve done has shown us this is a good place to store
carbon dioxide.

ãCountries around the world are spending millions to investigate this
same technique and weâve been able to do it with success.ä

The project is co-ordinated by the Petroleum Technology Research Centre
and is sponsored by Natural Resources Canada, the U.S. Department of Energy,
Alberta Energy Research Institute, Saskatchewan Industry and Resources,
the European Community, and 10 industrial sponsors. Research is being
conducted by universities, industry, federal and provincial government
agencies in North America and Europe.

[biofuel] Canada - Burying CO2

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