Professor gets $3M to research carbon capture and storage in N.L.
The ocean's floor a dark, mysterious place, but one Memorial University professor sees it as an opportunity — and a storage room.
"We're not talking about a big cave underground or a tank underground," engineering professor Lesley James told CBC Radio's The Broadcast. "We see water running through sand and rocks on the beach, it's between those sand particles and those rock particles where we'll actually store the CO2."
James is researching methods of compressing carbon dioxide after it's been captured from the air, smokestacks or other sites, and then injecting it into sedimentary rocks offshore.
The goal of carbon capture and storage is to keep greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere.
It hasn't been done in Newfoundland and Labrador yet, but a $3-million grant from the provincial government will help James and her students get closer to realizing that idea.
"It takes everyone as a stakeholder working together," she said.
James says the money will go toward equipment and training for students and researchers who she hopes will become the workforce in the future carbon capture field.
Hamidreza Shiri, part of James' research team and also a postdoctoral fellow at MUN's Hibernia enhanced oil recovery group lab, says it's been "amazing" work.
"Most of the scholars believe that it's the future," said Shiri. "Capturing the CO2 will help the ozone layer."
The optimistic spirit is high among those involved in a field of study never before attempted in the province.
PhD researcher Dorcas Akrong, who is working on the CO2 injection itself, says a soap-like foam surfactant helps the compressed carbon dioxide flow to less permeable portions of the rocks used to store it.
"It feels good to know that your research is contributing to something that is safe in the world," Akrong said.
According to James, the question of the hour is when a project can officially get started.
She says places like Alberta, Saskatchewan and even Norway are examples that show this type of gas storage is possible. Recent government funding is an added bonus, too.
James says her research area is like "reverse oil and gas," because instead of drilling something out of the earth, she is hoping to put something inside it. But, a real-life project would use similar facilities as the oil and gas sector.
"If we look historically at what it's taken… it literally takes 15 to 20 years to get a project started," she said.
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