Pumping carbon dioxide deep under the seafloor may seem like a science-fiction-based solution to dealing with the greenhouse gas, but it’s a technology that The University of Texas at Austin Bureau of Economic Geology has been helping to perfect during the past 15 years.
That history of leadership with the emerging technology has prompted the U.S. Department of Energy to grant the bureau $4 million to lead a regional partnership to explore how carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted from industrial facilities along the Gulf Coast can be safely stored in geological formations under the Gulf of Mexico.
The four-year program will be led by the bureau’s Gulf Coast Carbon Center (GCCC) and include institutions and partners from throughout the nation.