San Juan region as carbon sink?
The Four Corners region has long been tapped for carbon fuels that, when burned, contribute to global warming. But new research in the region eventually may provide a solution to the global warming dilemma, by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and injecting it into coal seams deep below the Earth's surface.
The Durango Herald reports today that the Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration is researching the feasibility of injecting carbon dioxide into coal beds near Navajo Lake. The porous coal is expected to bond with and hold onto the carbon dioxide; the research will show whether the CO2 migrates.
The Southwest Partnership is one of several regional efforts funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and involving a consortium of private companies and government researchers. At the Pump Canyon test site near Aztec, researchers have drilled about a half mile deep and will inject about 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide. Three existing methane-producing wells are nearby and will help determine whether the CO2 migrates.
Eventually, said Genevieve Young of the Colorado Geological Survey, the test may help show whether carbon sequestration is a viable method of eliminating greenhouse gases. It could also determine whether the vast coal deposits in the San Juan region that are too deep to mine might someday be the receptor for industrial-scale carbon sequestration. With two coal-burning power plants and hundreds of natural gas wells, the Four Corners area is one of the worst carbon-dioxide emitters in the country.
While carbon sequestration holds promise, Young and others caution that it would have to be one of many strategies required to tackle the problem of global warming. Said Brian McPherson, the University of Utah professor who is heading up the Southwest Partnership, "It's not a silver bullet. There's isn't one."
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