14 DAY TRIAL // Human activities are releasing tons of carbon dioxide into our planet's atmosphere. Scientists are hoping to rid the world of some of it by burying it deep underground.
More precisely, they wish to inject it in basalt. They hope that basalt formations can trap this gas, and that, in time, the CO2 will react with calcium and magnesium to form limestone.
The mineralization of this compound would curb the risk that the CO2 could leak out of the ground and work its way back in the atmosphere.
As geochemist Juerg Matter puts it, “You reduce the risk of leakage, and you can pretty much walk away from your storage reservoirs”.
Nature reports that, since about a week and a half ago, scientists at the US Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have been pumping pure carbon dioxide in the ground close to the town of Wallula in Washington, US.
The area they have chosen for this project is the Columbia River Basalt formation, which apparently contains numerous pores.
According to the same source, the researchers working on this project are confident that, by early August at the latest, these pores will have become home to about 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide.
Data collected while carrying out laboratory tests and computer simulations suggests that, in about 10 -15 years' time, roughly 20% injected in the Columbia River Basalt formation will be mineralized.
“The mineralization reaction is most likely faster than what we in the community had thought,” Juerg Matter argues.
To prevent any leakages that might occur before the CO2 starts reacting with the calcium and the magnesium, the injection well will be capped by solid rock.
Shortly after they are done burying the carbon dioxide in this porous formation, scientists will begin to closely monitor the injection well.
They will collect water and soil samples, and try to determine what chemical reactions are taking place in the underground, and whether or not the project has turned out to be a success.