David Biello has concluded that cheap oil (and gas) is undermining the success of nearly every climate cleanup plan. A few months ago at the Paris talks, President Obama and world leaders talked about the importance of reducing carbon dioxide pollution associated with burning coal, the largest source of greenhouse gases. So far there is only one way to do that without pulling the plug on coal altogether ... carbon capture and storage (CCS), a process by which CO2 is pulled from a smokestack before it escapes into the air and is then buried deep underground. Nearly every plan to mitigate global warming includes CCS, yet few countries have adopted the technology because there is little financial incentive to make the costly investment.
Decades ago, however, the U.S. found a clever way to make the method economically viable ... tie CCS to oil recovery. And while the scheme seemed to work, low oil prices now are putting CCS, and therefore almost all climate cleanup plans in jeopardy. The oil industry first pumped carbon dioxide down into oil wells in 1972. Called enhanced oil recovery (EOR), the technique boosts the amount of petroleum that a well yields because the gas eases the flow of the oil, restores pressure underground to force more oil into the surface in permeable rocks containing groundwater. During the process, a portion of CO2 becomes trapped underground like the oil before it. It will stay there for eternity, says Richard Esposito, a geologist who has worked to develop CCS at the coal-burning electric utility Southern Company.
Using CO2 to get oil and gas is one of the few ways to make carbon capture pay, says Julio Friedmann, the principal deputy assistant secretary for fossil energy at the U.S. DOE. EOR has been the dominant storage mode because it produces revenue, he explains. In other words, it potentially satisfies oil companies and environmentalists. But, because the price of oil has dipped so dramatically, EOR with CO2 no longer works.
Original working URL: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cheap-oil-is-undermining-the-success-of-nearly-every-climate-cleanup-plan/
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