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Carbon Dioxide Gets Buried in Midwest Experiment

Site in Illinois may be able to hold 100 billion tons of CO2

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Feb 16, 2009 3:07 PM CST

(Newser) – Construction began this week on an Energy Department project that aims to bury a million metric tons of carbon dioxide beneath Illinois' surface by 2012, Wired reports. While that's peanuts compared to the billions of tons emitted each year, the project—the largest such injection to date—could pave the way for a multi-state storage site that advocates claim could store 100 billion tons.

The Bush administration scrapped FutureGen, the largest federal carbon sequestration project, last year, and critics have questioned the technology’s viability. But carbon capture in theory remains an attractive solution for states that lack wind and solar power resources, allowing them to keep their coal-fired plants without furthering climate change.

The exterior of the Crawford Generating Station in Chicago, Thursday, April 12, 2007.
The exterior of the Crawford Generating Station in Chicago, Thursday, April 12, 2007.   (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007.
Smoke stacks from the NRG power plant located just outside of Jewett, Texas tower over Texas Highway 39, Nov. 28, 2007.   (AP Photo/Nick Simonite)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
Guest
Feb 17, 2009 1:45 AM CST
Plants live on CO2. BS article.
riffran
Feb 17, 2009 12:27 AM CST
gaseous CO2 is used in photosynthesis but plant life cant live well in a carbolic acid enviroment....acid rain is an example of PH change messing thing up....now if the sequestered CO2 will actually penetrate ground water, is unknown
Mr.C
Feb 16, 2009 8:59 PM CST
The technology behind Futuregen is a lot cleaner than what the US uses currently. (I live in the town where it almost got built - before funding was pulled) Of course it is not near as clean as alternative fuels.

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