Capturing CO2

The standard approach to carbon capture and storage involves extracting CO2 from a fossil-fuel burning power plant, compressing and transporting the captured carbon dioxide and injecting it into a deep underground formation.

The biggest risk associated with geologic carbon-dioxide sequestration is that the CO2, which is less dense than water, will escape from the storage formation through buoyancy.

But engineering professor Steven Bryant, who directs the Geological CO2 Storage Research Project at The University of Texas at Austin, believes he and his team have come up with a novel solution.

Instead of injecting the compressed CO2 directly into a deep underground formation, Bryant's alternative plan is to drill wells in the deep salt-water filled formation, pump out the salt water, dissolve the carbon dioxide into the salt water in a mixing tank at the surface and then inject the CO2-laden water back into the same formation.