HR: 11:20h
AN: U42A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Viability of Carbon Dioxide Storage in Deep Sea Sediment
AU: * Bielicki, J M
EM: bielicki@fas.harvard.edu
AF: Energy Technology Innovation Project, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University, 79 John F. Kennedy Street., Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
AB: Despite the public's general aversion to using the ocean to dispose of captured carbon dioxide (CO₂), recent revisions of the London Protocol have removed a hurdle to subsea injection of CO₂. This paper constructs a map of the worldwide "prospectivity" of CO₂ storage in deep sea sediment, i.e. amenable locations are determined and storage capacities estimated. CO₂ injected into deep sea sediment is expected to be gravitationally trapped and secondarily capped by CO₂ hydrate formation. Capture, transport, and storage costs are estimated and a mixed-integer linear programming model that generates spatially optimized infrastructure networks is applied. The model captures CO₂ from fixed point sources, uses minimum cost routing paths, aggregates CO₂ flow into trunk distribution pipelines where appropriate, and injects the CO₂ in potential deep sea injection sites. Economies of scale for this climate change mitigation intervention in the United States Exclusive Economic Zone are discussed, including provisions for destabilizing and/or harvesting methane from in situ gas hydrates.
DE: 0428 Carbon cycling (4806)
DE: 1605 Abrupt/rapid climate change (4901, 8408)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles, processes, and modeling (0412, 0414, 0793, 4805, 4912)
DE: 6304 Benefit-cost analysis
DE: 6309 Decision making under uncertainty
SC: Union [U]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting