University of Utah hosts international conference focused on underground storage of greenhouse gases
The progress that Utah scientists are making on carbon sequestration is a key reason an international group of geological storage modeling experts met at the University of Utah February 15-18, 2010.
The 2nd annual Greenhouse Gas (GHG) conference of the International Energy Agency (IEA) attracted more than 60 practitioners from around the world. Attendees hailed from Australia, Canada, Japan, France, Norway, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, China, and the Netherlands. U.S. attendees represented two national laboratories, and several major universities and energy companies.
The focus of the meeting was on the computer technology used to predict and monitor the behavior of carbon dioxide (CO2) stored kilometers underground, either in oil fields for enhanced oil recovery, or as part of GHG mitigation efforts.
“Since carbon sequestration takes place far underground where you can’t make direct observations, computer models are vital. The reliability of those models not only has an impact on science, engineering and technology, but also on policy decisions,” said Brian McPherson, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Utah and a USTAR researcher.
“Active research and commercial sequestration projects are taking place in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America. This meeting is an opportunity for the world’s leading computer modeling experts to compare notes and best practices, and to advance efforts across the globe,” McPherson said.
“While a bunch of rock hounds aren’t much to look at, these people are what I’d call super modelers. The sophistication and power of sequestration modeling has made exponential progress in the last year,” he said.
McPherson and his team are contributing materially to that progress. He is spearheading a federally-funded, multi-state project called the Southwest Partnership on Carbon Sequestration. The project currently has four active test sites, one in the pre-injection phase, two in active injection, and one in post-injection monitoring.
“People traveled a long way to this meeting because they’re curious to hear what is happening in Utah,” said Al Walker, USTAR Eastern Utah Technology Outreach director. “Brian is well respected by the scientific community, and the progress of the Southwest Partnership’s actual field experiments in Utah, Texas and New Mexico is impressive. A good deal of the leadership Brian’s team is providing involves raising the accuracy and efficiency of geologic storage modeling.”
“We’re doing well in comparison to activity around the world, and the characteristics of our different sites enhance our models,” McPherson said. “The team here at the U of U has some of the top conceptual and numerical modelers in the world. We’ve got fantastic talent here and they are becoming increasingly well known internationally.”
Conference attendees visited Green River's Crystal Geyser to observe CO2 activity.
Founded during the 1970s oil crisis, the IEA is an intergovernmental organization which acts as energy policy adviser to 28 member countries in their effort to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for their citizens.
Sponsors of the conference included the U.S. Department of Energy and its National Energy Technology Laboratory, the U of U Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Energy & Geoscience Institute, Headwaters Clean Carbon Services, and USTAR.
Photos courtesy of Richard Esser, EGI
