CO2 Sequestration

Every year, we dispose of > 40 billion tons, and increasing, of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. Limiting and even reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is necessary to ensure against potentially devastating impacts of climate change, yet fossil fuels appear to be needed, at least for the next few decades, to provide the economic growth required for global stability and a healthy population. During this transitional period, carbon sequestration could allow using fossil fuels while avoiding emissions. But demonstrating that sequestration can be done reliably and safely poses a number of problems that ERL researchers are well situated to solve:  Secure geological structures must be identified, and the long-term storage must be verified by imaging; the multiphase fluid dynamics of trapping andmixing must be understood; and the risk of induced seismicity must be managed.

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