科技动态:将二氧化碳储存起来

Now from the Boston Museum of Science. Sci Tech today on NECN.

In Sci Tech today, could the New England coastline hold the key to reducing greenhouse gas emissions? Researchers are considering a plan to bury carbon dioxide emissions under water. Doctor Julie Sable is joining us live, from the museum of Boston and talk about the idea. Julie, thanks for being here. Hey, Beth.

So there has been a lot of concerns that these emissions are behind climate change, what's the theory behind storing carbon dioxide under ground?

We are facing a big problem with greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide alone, the world emits thirty billion tons per year. And even though, a lot of nations are trying to cut back on emissions, it looks like that overall number will increase more in coming years. So as one of several solutions to offset those emissions, experts are looking at carbon capture and storage when you collect carbon dioxide from emitters like power plants and then inject it under ground. But there are some challenges with that on the storage side which I am particular talking about here. You have to choose the right areas to put that carbon dioxide. You need a lot of volume to store on a really large scale. And also choose safe areas that minimize risk of leakage.

Which brings us to the topic of Basalt, the idea is to store the CO2 in Basalt. What exactly is it? Why would it be a good home for storing CO2?

Basalt is a really common rock, I have some of them here, makes most of the ancient crust. And some researchers from Colombia and Rutgers are recently pointed out that there are some areas of basalt offshore the east coast, including off Massachusetts going down into New Jersey where that could be a specially good reservoir for storing carbon dioxide. One advantage to basalt, is that there is lots of volume, lots of space where we can pump the carbon dioxide in. And that's because basalt is often bubbly, they have a lot of holes and there are some here, I have a photo to show, closer up. And also the tops of basalt level flows are often broken up and fractured and that rubbly top creates lot of interconnected space to inject carbon dioxide.

So why the east coast, why this area?

Oh, if you don't mind I wanna to finish up with the very special thing about basalt that make the scientist especially excited. Yes, go ahead.

OK, that is that basalt naturally reacts with carbon dioxide and water to form another rock, limestone. This is also a very common rock and the idea is that over time you will be able to lock the carbon dioxide into solid rock in these reservoirs.

And why the east coast?

So, a few advantages to the east coast. One is that these basalts are confined to some ancient basins. So that there they should have abundant outside and also capped up to a thousand feet of impermeable sediments. So that reduces the risk of leakage. Another advantage is that it's pretty close to population centers where we make a lot of power but not too close for comfort. And also compared to the west coast, the east coast is much less volcanically and seismically active. So it's safer for that too.

All right, interesting stuff, Doctor Julie Sable, Thanks for so much for joining us. Thanks a lot.

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