The possibility of leaking in carbon capture and storage, it will not sink

Is there any possibility the stored-CO2 leaked?

One of the most recent technology of reducing the greenhouse gasses – for instance the carbon dioxide – is the carbon capture and storage. However, the technology has not been used yet in optimal ways because of the possibility of leaking occurring in the captured storage. The feeling of reluctant arrives when we think about the leakage during the storing process. Could it be sink?

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) strategy has been considered by many nations in preventing the greenhouse effect. Indonesia itself has been developing the facilities and infrastructures to capture around 50-100 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per day for several months. According to the resource, this pilot project is aimed to increase the understanding of Indonesian people about the carbon dioxide injection while at the same time the government may have developed the regulations about related topics. On the other hand, some of the European countries has attempted to do it in industrial scale by capturing the CO2 and use it into useful things.

Although the technology sounds promising, it is not yet being implemented because of the safety aspect. The CCS technology captures the CO2 and keeps the gas inside a storage system which is compressed storage transforming the gas into a dense fluid, and it will be injected kilometers underground into permanent storage system. Few kilometers below the ground generates high pressure which can damage the storage so in the future the risk of leaking will be higher. To solve this issue, Hang Deng lead team of scientist to conduct research about the potential for leakage.

The possibility of leakage also comes from the geological aspect of the earth which is the geological activities, such as the earthquake. Consequences result also could cause the management aspect economically based on the assumption of monitoring, treatment, containment, and remediation. The only assumption that I can make for the leakage underwater is the contaminated underground water so it can create the soil is more acidic than before. It is similar to what happens in the oceans or “ocean acidification”.

Basically, the management of CCS technology generates economically impact in organizing and operating the facilities and infrastructures. Moreover, the CCS industry may have provided thousands of workforces which can grow the expenses, so the governments must provide allocation in running the industry even though the artificial technology transforming the CO2 into fuels.

The simulation which was conducted by Hang Deng found that the possibility of leakage which can impact economically is no. By using the underground method even though there is leakage in worst scenario, the CO2 is still trapped in the soil. However, as we mentioned previously that the possibility of leakage could lead to the releasing of CO2 freely to atmosphere from the soil while at the same time if it leaks into groundwater, it will cause groundwater acidification. The simulation conducted by the team researcher answered that the impact to economic management could be neglected.

To conclude, the carbon capture and storage method is one of the best solution in reducing the climate change caused by the greenhouse gas. The storage system which is located below the ground for kilometers will not provide big impact in the management process. Furthermore, this method is promising because it takes less of expenses in the process of capturing and storing, and even in the future the carbon dioxide could be utilized to produce new fuel.

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[1] Image is downloaded from www.canada.com