GOVERNMENT & POLICY
SEEKING FUNDS FOR GEOENGINEERING
noted David Keith, a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering and of economics at the University of Calgary. AS IN THE U.S., government support for
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geoengineering research in Europe is low. The U.K. is funding such research at about Scientists tell House subcommittee that the U.S. needs $1.6 million per year, and the European an additional federal CLIMATE RESEARCH PROGRAM Union is considering a plan to contribute CHERYL HOGUE, C&EN WASHINGTON $1.5 million toward these investigations, Rasch testified. Urging Congress to inject U.S. taxpayer CONGRESS SHOULD fund a federal climate-change effects such as ocean money into these efforts, Rasch said that research effort on geoengineering technolacidification from increased carbon diox$10 million, $20 million, or $50 million per ogy, a panel of scientists told the House ide levels. The second category consists of year “would have an enormous effect on the of Representatives Science & Technology techniques to strip CO2 from the air and research activity in this area.” If early studSubcommittee on Energy & Environment lock it away in deep underground storage, ies demonstrate that some techniques show earlier this month. The results of such in biomass or soils, or as stable minerals. promise for geoengineering and policymakfederal research could, if needed, help buy Thus far, geoengineering research in the ers consider deploying them, “funding must time for the world to wean itself off fossil U.S. has been done on a shoestring budget, increase sharply to a level similar to that of fuels, the researchers said. said Philip Rasch, chief climate scientist at a Manhattan Project,” Rasch said. The ManOnce dismissed by many scientists as Pacific Northwest National Laboratory’s hattan Project was the enormous U.S.-led too risky or presumptuous, geoengineering Atmospheric Science & Global Change effort, with participation by Canada and the efforts to weaken the effects of humanDivision. According to Rep. Bob U.K., to develop the world’s first atom induced global warming are gaining more Inglis (R-S.C.), the top Repubbomb in the 1940s at a cost of approxisupport from researchers, albeit with lican on the subcommittee, the mately $22 billion in today’s dollars. GAS TRAPPER strong caveats (C&EN, Nov. 23, 2009, page federal government contributed Serpentine, a Federally supported geoengineermineral found 28). At the hearing, the panel told the subonly $2.5 million toward these ing R&D could drive down the cost in certain committee about the state of research in efforts last year. As a result, of mineral sequestration as a way this area and gave recommendations about much of the current research on metamorphic to capture CO2 and keep it from the rocks, can where Congress may be able to help. geoengineering is funded by a atmosphere, said Klaus S. Lackner, sequester CO2 To set the stage at the hearing, Rep. “hodgepodge of private money,” as carbonate. a geophysics professor at Columbia Brian Baird (D-Wash.), the chairman University. The current cost of minof the subcommittee, said, “Our first eral sequestration runs about $100 priority is to reduce the production per ton of CO2, he said. But further of global greenhouse gas emissions.” development of this technology But if these cuts are too little and could slash this figure to $10 per ton, too late, geoengineering techniques according to Lackner. Air-capture could offer an alternative. and mineral sequestration technolo“Some may have potential, some gies could allow continued use of sound downright scary, and they fossil fuels, such as coal, for decades, all carry levels of uncertainty, hazstrengthening U.S. energy security, ards, and risks that could outweigh he told the subcommittee. their intended benefit,” Baird said. Mineral sequestration of CO2 hap“Furthermore, the technologies pens in nature, Lackner explained. proposed for deployment of many of Volcanoes belch the gas into the atthese geoengineering techniques are mosphere, and the geological process very young or nonexistent, and there of weathering chemically fixes CO2 are major uncertainties regarding into rock as carbonates, he explained. their effectiveness, environmental “Air capture and mineral sequestraimpacts, and economic costs.” tion simply work toward restoring the Geoengineering techniques fall carbon balance of the planet that has into two main categories. One inbeen disturbed by the massive mobilivolves reducing the amount of solar zation of fossil carbon,” Lackner said. radiation that enters Earth’s atmo“Because they function within the sphere and gets trapped by greenexisting carbon cycle, they also have far house gases. Methods under this fewer unintended consequences than category would fairly immediately many other geoengineering approachlower the planet’s average temperaes.” This differs from plans for stanture but would not address serious dard CO2 sequestration, which rely on WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
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an underground formation to act as a trap to keep the gas from reaching the atmosphere. There are two approaches to mineral sequestration, according to Lackner. One involves mining and crushing rocks containing suitable minerals, such as serpentine or olivine, that react with CO2. The crushed rocks are exposed to CO2 that is stripped from smokestack emissions or directly from air, converting the gas to carbonates. About 6 tons of rock could bind the CO2 from 1 ton of burned coal, he said. In the second method, CO2 is injected underground into a formation that is specially selected so the minerals in the rock react with the gas to form carbonates over a few decades, Lackner explained. Basalts—a type of rock found in various parts of the U.S., notably in the northwest—are suitable for this application, he said. To improve this method, the U.S. should consider funding research to better understand carbonate chemistry, reaction kinetics, sorbents, and catalysts to speed up reactions, as well as research to develop better models of how basalts weather in the presence of CO2, he said.
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MEANWHILE, Keith argued for Congress to
fund geoengineering research on solar radiation management. Possibilities for these technologies include injecting aerosols into the stratosphere and promoting the formation of clouds. Such techniques could rapidly cool the planet, buying time for society to ratchet down greenhouse gas emissions. But Keith urged lawmakers to start slowly on funding geoengineering efforts. “Given the limited scientific community now knowledgeable about solar radiation management, a very rapid buildup of research funding might result in a lot of illconceived projects being funded, and given the inherently controversial nature of the technology, the result might be a backlash that effectively ends systematic research,” he told the subcommittee. Robert B. Jackson, a biology professor at Duke University, and Keith also recommended that the federal government form an interagency working group on geoengineering analogous to the U.S. Global Change Research Program, an interagency group focused on climate-change research. “No single agency has the expertise needed to lead all geoengineering research,” Jackson told the subcommittee. Subcommittee Chairman Baird said the full House Science & Technology Committee will hold a hearing in the spring on potential governance of geoengineering. ■
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