Sunday, January 24, 2010

Keeping The Environment Carbon Free?

While the government makes plans for cutting future carbon emissions, some group of engineers are as well working on schemes on how carbon can be put away where it came from, - the underground.

Findings say that the concept of storing carbon in a rock, - known as geologic carbon sequestration could be one effective way to clean up carbon pollution in the environment.

Geochemists studies say that a single rock formation can store up to 10% of all human-generated carbon emissions in a year. The formation consists of peridotite, - a rock containing minerals that react with CO2 to form solid magnesium carbonate, one of the rocks that can trap carbon.

There has been plans to start the project in Iceland which plans to inject carbon dioxide-infused groundwater into volcanic basalt about 1,800 ft. underground. The depth pressure keeps the gas dissolved and prevents it from leaking into the atmosphere; wherein eventually, the CO2 bonds with the rock to form solid carbonate.

Columbia scientists and others will be tasked to monitor the project and determine if this approach could expand to handle the 28 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide humans emit each year.

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