UT Lands Nearly $20 Million To Monitor Cutting-Edge Carbon Storage

By Tim Taliaferro in Blog on June 29, 2010 at 11:45 am | No Comments

Into the annals of exciting environmental research being done at UT will soon go another cool study: carbon storage. 

The Bureau of Economic Geology, a unit within UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences, will receive $19 million from the federal government to design and monitor a carbon storage project in southeast Texas. The U.S. Department of Energy is awarding the grant.

Carbon storage is a new technology that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by storing carbon dioxide that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere.

At the WA Parish power plant — a coal-fired plant southwest of Houston — a portion of the carbon dioxide will be scrubbed and taken to an oil field. There, it will be buried deep underground for long-term storage and advanced oil recovery.

The project, scientists say, will be one of a handful in the world to use anthropogenic (as opposed to naturally occurring) carbon for enhanced oil recovery. 

If you like what you’re hearing, read a more detailed description from the Jackson School here. If it’s sounding a little too science-heavy for a Tuesday afternoon, stay tuned. We’ll be on the lookout for what we hope are the exciting results of this carbon storage business.

Photo: The WA Parish Plant. Photo from Jackson School of Geosciences.