The Big Sky Carbon Sequestration Partnership is one of seven partnerships funded by the U.S. Department of Energy as part of the National Energy Technology Laboratory Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership Program. Funding for the Partnership is distributed into three phases.
The Partnership is comprised of a nationwide network of key stakeholders, including universities, national laboratories, private companies, state agencies, and Native American tribes. Members of the Partnership meet annually to discuss the latest CCS research efforts, developments, and projects.
The BSCSP is involved in a number of both geologic and terrestrial carbon sequestration projects located throughout the Partnership’s region. Our research projects are located in eastern Washington, north central Montana, and Wyoming.
The BSCSP administrative office is located in Bozeman, Montana on the Montana State University campus. Our mailing address is:
Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. The gases are both naturally occurring and caused by human activities. When sunlight hits the earth's surface, some of it is re-radiated back to space as infrared radiation (heat). Greenhouse gases absorb infrared radiation and the heat is trapped within the earth's atmosphere. Rising levels of greenhouse gases is contributing to what is known as the greenhouse effect.
The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon that helps regulate the earth’s temperature. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, act like an insulating blanket, trapping solar energy that would otherwise escape into space. Without this natural "greenhouse effect," temperatures would be about 60ºF lower than they are now, and life as we know it today would not be possible. However, human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests, have enhanced the natural greenhouse effect, causing the earth’s average temperature to rise.
The immediate and future effects of global warming are currently being researched. Predicted changes due to global warming include:
There are a suite of strategies that could potentially stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations. Scientists at Princeton University have proposed a stabilization model composed of seven “wedges,” with each wedge representing a carbon-cutting strategy to reduce carbon emissions in the short term future. The wedges include ways in which energy is made and/or used. In addition to carbon sequestration technologies, increased transportation efficiency, increased efficiency of electricity production, and renewable energies are ways in which atmospheric CO2 levels can be reduced and potentially stabilized.
In 1988 the United Nations formed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to evaluate the risk of climate change brought on by humans based upon peer reviewed and published scientific literature. The IPCC released its Fourth Assessment Report in February 2007 (IPCC, 2007), which had over 450 authors and 2500 expert reviewers from 130 countries. The following are some of the key findings of their report:
Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a gas made up of one atom of carbon and two atoms of oxygen. CO2 is both naturally occurring and caused by human activities. CO2 moves through the earth’s atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere, and oceans in a naturally occurring process known as the carbon cycle. Humans and animals breath in oxygen and breath out CO2; plants take in CO2 during photosynthesis and release oxygen. Since the industrial revolution, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has increased due to human activity, such as burning of fossil fuels and land use conversion. CO2 is a greenhouse gas and contributes to global warming.
In the United States, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas is the primary source of CO2 emissions. CO2 is also released to the atmosphere when land is converted from natural ecosystems to anthropogenic land uses.
The carbon cycle is the process in which carbon is exchanged between living things, the earth's crust, the oceans and the sky; or the biosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere and the atmosphere. Carbon is continuously cycled through these systems by being taken up and released in several ways. Carbon is taken up from the atmosphere by plants during photosynthesis and by the cooling of the oceans. Carbon is released to the atmosphere by decomposition of living things, volcanic eruptions, and the heating of the oceans and burning fossil fuels. Burning fossil fuels has knocked the carbon cycle out of balance, resulting in increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Direct measurements of the atmosphere have been taken from Mauna Loa, Hawaii since 1958. These measurements record the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere as well as many other meteorological data. In addition, scientists use indirect measurements (called proxy data) to measure the Earth’s historic temperatures. Indirect measurements have been gathered from ice cores in Antarctica and Greenland and date as far back as 800,000 years. Scientists can use the air bubbles to measure atmospheric content and changing CO2 levels over time.
CO2 often exists as a gas in the air or as a solid in dry ice. However, if the temperature and pressure are both increased to above 88ºF (31.1ºC) and 73 Atmosphere (1073 psi), it adopts properties midway between a gas and a liquid, such that it fills a container like a gas, but has a density like that of a liquid. When supercritical CO2 is injected below 2500 feet, as would be in the case of geologic carbon sequestration, the pressure and temperature of the subsurface maintain the CO2 in the supercritical state.
Carbon sequestration is the removal and long-term storage of CO2 from the atmosphere into carbon reservoirs or carbon sinks. There are two types of carbon sequestration, terrestrial sequestration and geologic sequestration -- also know as carbon, capture and storage or CCS. In terrestrial sequestration, the carbon can be stored in forests or in the soils of farmland and rangeland. In geologic sequestration, the carbon can be stored underground in depleted oil and gas reservoirs, coal seams, basalt rocks and saline aquifers.
No. In addition to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Regional Partnerships, there are several existing international carbon capture and storage programs. Some of the largest sequestration projects are located in Europe, such as in Norway, Germany, and the Netherlands. Other CCS projects have been implemented in Australia, Canada, and Algeria and sequestration opportunities are being explored in China and India. The Global CCS Institute keeps a database of sequestration projects throughout the world. Click here to view their current map and list of projects.
Scientists are evaluating the potential risks associated with the geological sequestration of large volumes of CO2. Common concerns include contamination of drinking aquifers and the consequences of CO2 leakage from underground repositories. Extensive research efforts are undergone in the selection of sequestration sites. Project sites are assessed and selected by a team of geologists, engineers, and researchers in order to prevent and minimize these risks.
Geologic sequestration of CO2 involves a three step process that includes capturing the CO2, transporting the CO2, and storing it into a deep underground reservoir. The three different components of the process are explained below:
Monitoring, verification, and accounting (MVA) is a component of carbon sequestration that ensures the permanence and safety of carbon dioxide storage. Monitoring and verification encompasses the ability to: measure the amount of CO2stored at a specific site; monitor it for leaks; track the location of the CO2 underground; and verify that the CO2is stored in a way that is permanent and not harmful to the environment. Mitigation is the ability to respond to risks such as CO2leakage or any damage in the unlikely event that a leak should occur. Read more...
Terrestrial carbon sequestration is the process through which carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is absorbed by trees, plants and crops through photosynthesis, and stored as carbon in biomass (tree trunks, branches, foliage and roots) and soils. The term "sinks" is also used to refer to forests, croplands, and grazing lands, and their ability to sequester carbon. Agriculture and forestry activities can also release CO2to the atmosphere. Therefore, a carbon sink occurs when carbon sequestration is greater than carbon releases over some time period.
Terrestrial sequestration can be enhanced by land use practices and land management decisions that increase the amount of carbon stored in croplands, soils, and forest environments. Diversified rotation cropping, no-till farming, reducing summer fallow, planting cover crops (i.e. wheat, rye) or high residue crops (i.e. corn, grain sorghum), and vegetation buffers are ways in which carbon is stored in cropland environments. Additional terrestrial sequestration activities include converting marginal agricultural lands to grasslands or forests, selecting hybrid crops with high carbon storage capacities, and other land use practices that minimize soil tillage, erosion, and the removal of carbon from the land.