Australia began pumping carbon dioxide underground yesterday using an experimental technology that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by locking dangerous gases deep in the earth.
Australia is one of only a handful of places trying the technology, and environmentalists immediately criticized the project as a token gesture that distracts from the bigger goal of getting industry to slash emissions.
Officials opened a plant in southern Victoria state yesterday they said would capture and compress 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
It would then inject it 2km underground into a depleted natural gas reservoir.
GEOSEQUESTRATION
The process is known a geosequestration.
“The project has a very important role in demonstrating the technical and environmental feasibility of geosequestration to Australia and the world and preparing the way for its widespread application,” Peter Cook, the project’s chief executive, said in a statement.
The Australian scheme was developed with federal and state government support and is much smaller than similar systems overseas.
INJECTIONS
Since 1996, about 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year has been injected under the North Sea and about the same amount trapped under Algeria’s In Salah gas fields for the past two years.
The process uses technology similar to that which has been used at about 144 sites in the US where carbon dioxide is injected underground to help recover oil reserves.
The Greens minority political party slammed the project, saying it would achieve little and should be abandoned in favor of plans that would achieve much bigger emission cuts.
Greens Senator Christine Milne refered to the project as a “government-funded PR for the coal sector.”
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