As the world seeks solutions for issues like efficient energy production and the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, University of Wyoming-conducted research at Dry Forks Station near Gillette could provide such a solution as it tests the viability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) methods in Wyoming.
This research will be the topic of UW’s recurring community-collaboration program, Saturday University, taking place this Thursday in Gillette and again on Saturday in Sheridan. Key UW personnel involved in the project will present an overview of the research the public.
Coal-rich Wyoming is an important state for the development of CCS projects, said Kipp Coddington, director of UW’s Energy Innovation Center (EIC). Coddington, who will be speaking at both events, has a background in law and chemical engineering, and previously worked on the East Coast writing law and policy papers connected to CCS before deciding to head west.
“At this stage in my career I thought ‘Where is this most likely to happen first, commercially?’ And it was Wyoming, so I moved out here,” Coddington said. “If you’re doing climate policy, there’s no better place to come than Wyoming because this is where the carbon is. All this coal is here, all these energy resources, but it also has the geology that’s suitable for the storage of carbon dioxide.”
CCS projects are aimed at finding ways to prevent carbon dioxide (CO2) from being released into the atmosphere and instead tucking it away back in the ground. A major component of the Dry Forks Station project is the drilling of a well to test the area’s geologic features and determine if CO2 could be effectively sealed up there.
Scott Quillinan, senior hydrogeologist at the EIC, explained that “pore space” needs to be located in rock formations capable of containing the gas without leaks into groundwater aquifers or pressure imbalances that could result in seismic disturbances. In the Gillette area, the target areas are 10,000 feet below the surface under a “super seal” of 5,000 feet of Cretaceous shale that is “completely impermeable” and extends across the Powder River Basin.
“In Wyoming we have world-class reservoirs. We know this because they’ve held so much oil and gas for geologic timescales,” Quillinan said. “Now that that oil and gas is out of the way we can put CO2 back in. We’re pretty confident that we can do it safely, and that it’ll stay there.”
The success of the project could have important ramifications for Wyoming. The state depends heavily upon the general success of the CO2-producing coal market, which could find itself in a precarious position as environmental concerns about energy generation increasingly rival economic priorities.
“Our customers that buy coal-fired power have made it pretty apparent that they care about carbon emissions,” Quillinan said. “There needs to be a continued market for coal, and if we don’t figure out a way to manage the carbon that’s associated with coal there just won’t be a market.”
More advances need to be made in order to commercialize CCS on a large scale since methods are currently too expensive to be sustainable. Some projects around the country seek to find ways to put captured CO2 to use in order to generate revenue, such as the Petra Nova plant in Texas that ships captured carbon out to be injected into oil deposits in an “enhanced oil recovery” operation.
“We’re just waiting to see if that makes money or not,” Quillinan said.
Coddington and Quillinan will be giving lectures about their respective areas of expertise at Saturday University along with Jonathan Mclaughlin, senior petrologist at the EIC, and Jessica Western, senior research scientist and director of the Collaboration Program for UW’s Ruckelshaus Institute and Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. Mclaughlin will speak together with Quillinan, and Western’s lecture will focus on the social implications of the project and gaining community approval.
“One of the contributions of this panel is to initiate a conversation regarding ways to operationalize carbon capture and storage in a way that meets the needs and concerns of a community through public engagement. It’s called gaining a ‘social license to operate,’” Western said. “Creating this license employs the same methods and principles the Ruckelshaus Institute uses in any other collaborative problem solving project.”
Western said such a license brings value to projects through transparency and understanding, something of particular importance in coal-heavy Wyoming.
