Capturing, storing carbon dioxide from coal burning is essential, energy official says

Published: April 7, 2011

CLEMSON — Research and development of ways to capture and store excess carbon dioxide is essential if U.S. industries expect to continue to burn coal, an official of the Southern States Energy Board told scientists at a Clemson University science symposium Thursday.

"If coal and hydrocarbons are to be a vital part of the fuel mix in the future, we have to find a viable way to deal with carbon dioxide," Gerald R. Hill, senior technical adviser to the board, told more than 300 attendees at the David S. Snipes/Clemson Hydrogeology Symposium.

Coal, the largest source of energy for electricity generation worldwide, also is a large source of carbon dioxide releases, which scientists have linked to global climate change.

Scientists, including researchers at Clemson, are studying ways to store carbon dioxide so that it will not enter the atmosphere.

"The whole climate field is focused on carbon dioxide. Carbon sequestration and storage is an important aspect of that," Hill said. "Right now, we have a voluntary program (for carbon sequestration) in the United States. We don't know how, when or whether a regulated program may emerge. In other places in the world, it is already in place."

The United States is second only to China in coal production, mining roughly a billion tons per year. The majority of American coal is burned in domestic industrial and power plants. Coal accounts for more than 90 percent of the country's fossil fuel reserves.

"If hydrocarbons are going to continue to be feedstocks in industry, we need to look at ways to sequester carbon," Hill said.

Working with industry — especially electric power generators, whose plants consume a large amount of coal — the Southern States Energy Board has set up model sites from Mississippi to Virginia that capture carbon dioxide, convert it to a liquid form and inject it underground for long-term storage.

Hill urged the audience to consider the long-term implications of carbon dioxide storage, noting that "we don't have well-formed regulations on ownership and long-term liability of CO2 injection."

Hill delivered the keynote address to the 19th annual symposium. Hosted by Clemson's environmental engineering and earth sciences department, the meeting drew more than 300 attendees from universities, government and industry who work in aspects of geology involving the movement of groundwater.

The field is interdisciplinary, drawing scientists and engineers who bridge the physical, chemical and biological sciences, said symposium director Scott Brame, a Clemson hydrogeologist.

Along with technical sessions on topics ranging from constructed wetlands to bioremediation, the symposium includes field trips to study the "geomorphology" — the geologic history and change — of South Carolina's Chattooga River.

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