Carbon capture and storage

[riven]

Anyone have any input/opinion on this idea. Or about carbon sequesterisation?

Firstly I think it is a scam. While removing carbon dioxide from precombustion sources of natural gas could raise efficiency (from approx 35% to 40% - current simulations predict a max of 46% with current technology - limit is temperature), I have grave concerns at how it is being sold. Removal after combustion has no efficiency benifits.

It is being sold as storage etc. What a load of unscientific crap. It is disposal. We are not storing the carbon dioxide for reuse. I reckon 100 years ago nobody could have thought of CO2 emissions being a factor in the climate. I wonder how long it would take CO2 to become a factor in ground sources?

[kerrynorth]

I was reading recently that when Kinsale exhausts they are going to use the infrastructure transporting gas from Kinsale in reverse to transport emissions from the ESB stations to the empty Kinsale field and trap them there.

[riven]

Which is not storage but disposal. They are not trying to avoid the problem, simply create an underground landfill for CO2.

[ibis]

Which is not storage but disposal. They are not trying to avoid the problem, simply create an underground landfill for CO2.

Hm. While it's true that it's a short-term quick-fix rather than a solution, that's where we are.

[wysiwyg]

maybe they'll find some use for it in the future ?

[riven]

I disagree that it is a short term quick fix. CCS has still to be accepted even on a minority scale by the power, gas and petrochem industry. It will take 10 years under current estimates by my collegues before this will happen by which time the resources and time could have been spent on non disposal technologies.

Saying we could use it in the future is like saying that landfills are good because we could use them in the future. Dont be foolish.

[cathal maguidhir]

great idea, as long as it is economical the market will take care of it ,,safe under the sea is grand!just pump it in nice and easy now.
Methane: the Great Dying? :: Astrobiology Magazine - earth science - evolution distribution Origin of life universe - life beyond :: Astrobiology is study of earth science evolution distribution Origin of life in universe terrestrial
Ryskin calculated that some 10,000 gigatons of dissolved methane could have accumulated in water near the ocean floor under high pressure. If released quickly, perhaps triggered by an earthquake, the resulting cloud of methane would have an explosive force about 10,000 times greater than the world's entire stockpile of nuclear weapons. The huge conflagrations plus flooding and overturned oceans would cause the extinctions. (Approximately 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of land species were lost.)

"That amount of energy is absolutely staggering," said Ryskin. "As soon as one accepts this mechanism, it becomes clear that if it happened once it could happen again. I have little doubt there will be another methane-driven eruption -- though not on the same scale as 251 million years ago -- unless humans intervene."

[riven]

That is not really my issue here. What I have a problem with is we have these environmentalists (bon fide) that are spouting this trash of storage when they should be fecking honest and call it what it is: disposal. Buying into this strategy is buying into the lowest rung of environmental policy.

[ibis]

That is not really my issue here. What I have a problem with is we have these environmentalists (bon fide) that are spouting this trash of storage when they should be fecking honest and call it what it is: disposal. Buying into this strategy is buying into the lowest rung of environmental policy.

We live in an age of euphemisms. I wasn't aware anyone was under the impression that we were keeping it for later - and personally I would have regarded "carbon storage" as more honest than "carbon disposal" because there's no guarantee the stuff will stay down there.

[riven]

I am argueing against storage as we are not keeping it for later. We are disposing it underground and there is the possibility that this will eventually get above ground.
It is a terrible euphemism. The storage bit is used as the regulations around waste disposal and 'storage' are quite different.