Negatively buoyant CO2-hydrate composite for ocean carbon sequestration

✍ Scribed by Olivia R. West; Costas Tsouris; Sangyong Lee; Scott D. McCallum; Liyuan Liang

• Book ID: 102695830
• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 550 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-1541
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.690490127

✦ Synopsis

Direct ocean CO injection, currently being evaluated to 2 counteract anthropogenic increases in atmospheric CO , 2 takes advantage of the large carbon storage capacity offered Ž . by the world oceans Audus, 1997 . A proposed method for direct ocean injection is to release CO as a rising plume of 2 Ž . droplets at depths between 800 and 1,500 m Liro et al., 1992 , where CO is positively buoyant. The injection point must be 2 sufficiently deep to allow complete dissolution of the liquid CO into the surrounding seawater before the droplets reach 2 depths -;500 m, where CO will gasify and repartition 2 faster into the atmosphere. Another approach is to inject CO 2 at depths greater than 3,000 m, where CO is denser than 2 Ž . seawater Brewer et al., 1999 and will form a CO ''lake'' on 2 the seafloor. This approach will result in increased residence time and improved carbon sequestration efficiency, but these benefits are offset by infrastructure and implementation costs that increase significantly with injection depth. In addition, because of the localized high concentration of CO , local bio-2 logical effects are expected to be greater than with other injection methods.

CO hydrate, a nonstoichiometric CO -water solid phase, 2 2