Montana State partnership receives $66.9M for carbon seq...(injects liquefied CO 2 into permeable a...)

The partnership's previous studies have shown that the Big Sky partnership's region -- in depleted oil and gas fields and saline aquifers -- could store more than 200 billion metric tons of CO₂. By comparison, in 2005, human activity around the world produced 28 billion tons of CO₂.

The Big Sky partnership will use the Phase III project to demonstrate that underground geologic formations can store large volumes of CO₂ economically, safely and permanently. The project will study the site's geology before injection, monitor the injection process and monitor the site after injection.

Lee Spangler, director of the partnership and head of MSU's Energy Research Institute, said the award opens up important opportunities for the region, state and university.

"It provides the opportunity to validate carbon sequestration as one of the technologies to reduce greenhouse gases and help reduce climate change, and it illustrates the potential to use the region's vast energy resources as a path to energy independence in a climate-friendly fashion," Spangler said.

The funding will allow the partnership and MSU to test sequestration methods that are relevant to the region and develop the infrastructure, expertise and human resources needed to tackle carbon management, Spangler said.

The Department of Energy hopes that this project, and its six sister projects across the country, will provide data and know-how needed for future carbon capture and sequestration operations.

"Along with our regional partner, we will be able to move carbon sequestration technology from the laboratory to large-scale field demonstrations and ultimately to the marketplace," said Jeffrey Kupfer, deputy secretary of energy for the Department of En
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