New Funding from DOE Boosts Carbon Capture and Storage Research and Development at UW

Oct. 12, 2009 -- In September, the United State Department of Energy (DOE) awarded a combined total of $17.2 million for two active research projects at the UW Department of Geology and Geophysics related to the capture and storage of CO2.

Professor and Associate Vice President for Research and Economic Development Carol Frost is the PI on the project titled, Site Characterization of the highest-priority geologic formations for CO2 storage in Wyoming. Professors Subhashis Mallick, Jimm Myers, Associate Professor John Kaszuba, and Associate Lecturer Erin Campbell-Stone, are coPIs, along with scientists at the Wyoming State Geological Survey (WSGS). This $16.9 million project funded by the DOE will entail UW researchers undertaking the necessary work to move from preliminary characterization to commercial development of two CO2 storage sites (the Rock Springs Uplift and the Moxa Arch) in the Rocky Mountain region.

Objectives of the project include: the design and acquire 3-D/3-C seismic data and other geophysical surveys of the Rock Springs Uplift; design and complete a stratigraphic test well on the Rock Springs Uplift to obtain wire line logs, core, and cuttings to complement similar information from the Moxa Arch; and complete detailed risk assessments and design commercial-scale storage projects for both sites.

“Wyoming supplies 10 percent of the nation’s energy. 70 percent of this energy comes from coal, which emits a greater amount of CO2 per unit of energy than oil or gas,” says Frost. “Geologic sequestration of that CO2 is essential to continued use of this major domestic source of energy while making progress towards meeting President Obama’s Energy Goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050.”

Another project titled, Measurements of 222 Rn, 220Rn, and CO2 emissions in natural CO2 fields in Wyoming: MVA techniques for determining gas transport and caprock integrity, also received $274,958 in funding from the DOE. This project, lead by Associate Professors John Kaszuba and Kenneth W. W. Sims, will help to determine whether quantitative measurement techniques for Rn activity and CO2 flux, already established for natural volcanic systems can be applied to natural and laboratory CO2 analogues as a means of assessing caprock integrity. This project will provide training opportunities for two graduate students and one undergraduate student in geologic and geochemical skills required for implementing and deploying this technology. The three students will perform fundamental research to advance the science of Monitoring, Verification, and Accounting (MVA).

“Wyoming is home to a wide variety of unique geologic features that allow us to study how carbon dioxide behaves in the subsurface,” says Kaszuba. “Students on this exciting project will have the opportunity to perform fundamental and applied research on natural carbon dioxide accumulations from Yellowstone to the Moxa Arch. Their work will allow us to address important questions critical to the success of geologic carbon sequestration.”