LEICESTER, England, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- British scientists have proposed a cold solution for global warming: storing frozen carbon dioxide in huge underground reservoirs to reduce emissions.
The researchers from the University of Leicester and the British Geological Society have even identified sites in Western Europe that would be suitable for such a series of geological aquifers, where frozen CO2 could be stored harmlessly for thousands of years.
Professor Mike Lovel, working with research student Ameena Camps and BGS researcher Chris Rochelle, say storing the gas in a solid form as a gas hydrate, or as a pool of liquid CO2 below a cap of hydrate cemented sediments, offers an alternative method of geological sequestration to the current practices of storage in warm, deep sediments in the North Sea.
Laboratory experiments carried out as part of Camps' Ph.D. project indicate carbon dioxide hydrate should form stable structures in sediments under oceans. By employing geophysical techniques and computer modeling, Camps identified a number of sites in Western Europe with the potential to store carbon dioxide by such a method.
The study is published in the journal Planet Earth.
