Originally, this post was quite lengthy, but I have since decided that I was rather uninformed when I wrote it back in July. Currently, I work for an institution conducting CO2 Sequestration research, and I’m still not fully convinced that the technology will be useful anytime soon. CO2 sequestration is far more likely but be used for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it does put more CO2 in the ground than it generates (or it will). Furthermore, oil companies kick in money for the infrastructure and research, and without their data it would be almost impossible to generate accurate models of injection sites.
Personally, I still think modeling sequestered CO2 is BS, but progress will be made. Feel free to comment or ask questions. I’m not exactly an expert on sequestration, but I will defiantly have more knowledge than your average Joe. Be wary of information regarding CO2 sequestration because there is not a lot of real data on the subject. Within the next few years, we should have a much better idea of the long term storage potential and economic sustainability of sequestration. Regardless of what some groups would like you to think safe storage is not a problem. We can already make it work. It really boils down to infrastructure and economics.
I will be happy to try to provide legitimate scientific papers to anyone who would like to them. If you want to know more about the topic you should really watch this video first. It does a decent job of outlining a lot of the current issues, and explains where we are at on the research side of things.
You hit the nail on the head when you said “safe storage is not a problem. We can already make it work. It really boils down to infrastructure and economics.”
I run the site PowerPlantCCS ( http://www.powerplantccs.com ) and my conclusion is the same as yours. However, it is also important to note that storing it underground, while it might be technically and economically feasible, might not be the most sustainable solution. It is a rather odd feeling to have billions of tons of CO2 pumped right below us!
There are some methods such as bio-based sequestration that are emerging, but it is too early to say whether they can scale. I only hope that sooner rather than later some breakthrough tech / process will evolve that will be able to sequester CO2 in a “sustainable” way
NS @ PowerPlantCCS – http://www.powerplantccs.com