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Development of a Method for Measuring Carbon Balance in the Chemical Sequestration of CO2--Paras Research Corporation, 1511
Woodhurst Street, Bowling Green, KY
42104-3331; 270-842-2757
Dr.
John T. Riley, Principal Investigator,
bgrileys@msn.com
Dr.
John T. Riley, Business Official,
DOE
Grant No. DE-FG02-03ER83740
Amount:
$742,351
Continued increases in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the
atmosphere may eventually lead to global warming.
Of the sequestration approaches that have been proposed, the secure
sequestration of CO2 in
the natural ecosystem appears to be a very efficient way to offset CO2
emissions into the atmosphere in the coming decades.
Three stages of carbon dioxide management and sequestration have been
proposed: (1) CO2
capture from the flue gas of power plants – by using ammonium
solutions in a wet scrubber to react with CO2
to form ammonium bicarbonate fertilizer, (2) short term carbon
storage through enhanced growth of biomass using the ammonium bicarbonate
fertilizer, and (3) long term carbon storage by securely sequestering CO2
as carbonates in underground water systems.
This project will develop a test protocol for measuring the utilization
of ammonium bicarbonate as a fertilizer, using an ecosystem containing soil,
groundwater, biomass, and atmosphere with temperature, moisture, pH and
composites control. In Phase I,
procedures for sample selection, sampling plan development, laboratory-scale
experiment unit design, analytical method development, and test matrix selection
were developed. In Phase II, a
greenhouse will be constructed and a series of experiments to study the carbon
balance in a simulated ecosystem will be conducted.
Three typical crops, three typical soils, and three groundwaters will be
used in the simulated ecosystem. A
model for carbon transformation from ammonium bicarbonate to the terrestrial
ecosystem will be developed.