Houston, Feb 08: Injecting carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants into deep underground aquifers may be a suitable long-term disposal method for the greenhouse gas, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said on Wednesday.

"We have shown that this is a much safer way of disposing of CO2 than previously believed because a large portion -- maybe all -- of the CO2 will be trapped in small blobs in the briny aquifer," Ruben Juanes, MIT professor of civil and environmental engineering, said in a release.

Carbon dioxide, one of the primary greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, comes from burning coal and natural gas to produce electricity. Capturing carbon and storing it underground through sequestration has been viewed as a way to reduce carbon dioxide impact on the Earth`s atmosphere.

One of the biggest risks of a sequestration has been the possibility that carbon would rise to escape into the atmosphere over time.

Researchers have studied the sequestration of carbon dioxide in three geologic formations: depleted oil and gas fields, unminable coal seams and deep saline aquifers. The new study looked at what happens when carbon is injected into saline aquifers.

Research showed that it may be possible to capture carbon dioxide emissions from a power plant, inject the compressed gas underground through the life of the generating unit, leaving it safely stored for centuries. Over time, the carbon dioxide will dissolve, leaving a small amount that will adhere to the rock in the form of iron and magnesium carbonates, the report said.

The paper was published in a recent issue of Water Resources Research, according to MIT. Co-authors of the study include Martin Blunt of Imperial College of London and Franklin Orr Jr. of Stanford University.

Bureau Report