Engineering Professor Steven Bryant and colleagues at the University of Texas at Austin note the standard approach to carbon capture and storage involves injecting compressed CO2 into a deep underground formation.

But Bryant said that risks the gas, which is less dense than water, might escape from the storage formation through buoyancy.

Bryant suggests instead of injecting compressed CO2 directly into a deep underground formation, wells should be drilled in the salt-water filled formation and the salt water extracted.

He said the carbon dioxide could then be dissolved in the salt water and the CO2-laden water pumped back into the same formation. Since the CO2-laden water is denser than compressed carbon dioxide and slightly denser than the original brine, it will have no tendency to rise toward the surface.

"This process has several advantages," Bryant said, "but the most important is that it eliminates the risk of sequestered carbon dioxide escaping from the storage formation.

Bryant is to present his research in Washington next week during the ninth annual International Conference on Greenhouse Gas Control Technologies.