Currently, oil companies get most of their carbon dioxide from natural underground formations, injecting almost 100,000 tons daily. Carbon capture systems could eventually gain a share of this market. In the future, if Congress ever legislates that people have to capture CO2, Democrats and Republicans might agree that the most natural way to sequester the CO2 from fossil fuels would be to inject it back into the ground where it came from.

Coal-fired power plants produce an enormous amount of CO2 in their emissions. One way to deal with it is to separate it and sell it to oil companies to use for oil well flooding. Enick explained that using only carbon dioxide for oil extraction would also save tremendous amounts of water. If oil companies bought more CO2, it would help finance pipelines needed to take the CO2 from the power plant to the oil well.

The research funding goes into effect next year, and the scientists expect to make rapid progress. "I think we'll have some interesting laboratory results by the end of 2013," Beckman said.

Reprinted from Climatewire with permission from Environment & Energy Publishing, LLC. www.eenews.net, 202-628-6500

4 Comments

1. 1. greenhome123 03:50 PM 10/22/12

   I believe these researchers time would have been better spent trying to increase efficiency of solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries rather than looking for "new cheap" chemicals to pump into the ground to coax out more fossil fuels.

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2. 2. RDH 04:28 PM 10/22/12

   Should tax payers be funding this when Obama whines everyday about subsidies to the oil companies?

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3. 3. greenhome123 06:02 PM 10/23/12

   RDH, I believe tax payer subsidies should be funding more solar and wind related energy, as those will be our primary energy sources 100 years from now after we have used up most of our fossil fuels. Also, while on the issue of subsidies, I believe subsidies for crops like corn and soybeans should be reduced, while subsides for healthy organic sustainability grown fruits and veggies should be increased. The low cost of corn and soybeans and their byproducts like high fructose corn syrup and soy lecithin are major contributing factors to our growing obesity problem. Changing subsidies to healthier fruits and veggies will lower cost of healthy foods and will encourage Americans to buy more healthy food, which will lower health care cost by reducing obesity related diseases.

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4. 4. sethdayal in reply to greenhome123 07:28 PM 10/23/12

   Do you think the death of 3 million people every year we wait to end fossil pollution, is a fair price to pay for your wacky wind solar dream, when nuke power do the job in 10 years?

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