The warmist German klimaretter.info site has a piece about sequestraton of carbon dioxide, which reports that Swedish power company Vattenfalls plans have a CCS plant near Berlin ready by 2015.
The plant would remove CO2 from Vattenfall’s brown coal power plant and pump it into the earth for high-pressure underground storage. But an expert geological assessment shows that could lead to problems. According to klimaretter.info:
Storing carbon dioxide underground could however have negative impacts beyond Brandenburg. A geological expert assessment for the community of Barnim-Oderbruch made available to klimaretter.info states that because of the overpressure in the bedrock strata, a salinisation of groundwater has to be expected within a radius of 100 km from the injection borehole. That would affect Mecklenburg Western Pommerania and Poland.
That means the entire Berlin metropolitan area would be impacted. Geology expert Ralf Krupp studied the underground geology in the area and concludes that the ground structure may not be able to securely store the CO2 because the 20-meter salt layer is not thick enough, and so fears that the high pressure could lead salt water carrying strata to mix in with drinking water – causing it to become saline. Kilmaretter also writes:
Especially problematic for Krupp is that saltwater probably is laden with heavy metals. ‘This could be an acute hazard for many water utilities,’ the geologist descríbes.”
In the meantime Vattenfalls calls such scenarios “purely speculative” and that there a number of technical factors that have to be considered. Water utility companies, however, find the scenarios plausible and not without risk.
In the meantime, the uncertainty is already having a powerful impact on public opinion. Activist and cititens groups are already mobilising to stop the CCS technology from being employed not only near Berlin, but at a number of locations throughout Germany. So add another technology that is too risky to be used – along with nuclear power, GMO’s, high speed trains, coal power plants, shale gas, oil, internal combustion engines, bottled water, fireplaces, toilets…
Reading up on CCS technology, I find that it involves a lot work (consumption of energy) and will provide no benefit. Seems to be yet another superstition-driven folly. Watch this Alberta video on how it works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0i6dhEPSwU.
Living has a 100% risk of death!
As the population increases the problem gets worse!
No solution in sight!
/sarc off
Would you say that the Environmental Impact study on this project was just slightly flawed by the automatic assumption that putting CO2 into the atmosphere was something to be avoided?
“As the population increases the problem gets worse!” – It also increases when the population declines: less population density, less tax money to pay for services, etc. One would rather have a heart attack in a megolopolis than in the tundra.
But let’s get this straight: Carbon sequestration might contaminate ground water, but since it’s for a good purpose, all risks must be ignored. Drilling for shale gas and fracturing must be categorically prohibited, although there has been no case of ground water contamination in the 60 years the technology has been in practice. Can this pass for a schoolbook example of dialectic thinking?
European descent into madness accelerates.
Reminds me of this from wuwt
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/11/co2-sequestration-splodes-in-saskatchewan/
O/T: EU wants to enforce new taps to reduce water usage by 30%. This is meant to alleviate drought conditions in Southern Europe but as the EU commission cannot make rules that apply only in part of the EU they plan to enforce it in the water-rich Northern countries as well.
http://www.welt.de/wirtschaft/article13269762/EU-will-sparsamere-Wasserhaehne-vorschreiben.html
I’m pretty sure it won’t happen but i think it gives you a wonderful impression of the kind of non-elected rulers we have in Europe.
Carbon sequestration is total madness and a complete waste of money.
If you mix CO2 and water directly, you can sell the product in supermarkets for a nice price.
Maybe there is some good to come from CCS after all.
If people will just hark back to the times of their grandparents they will recall tales of the health giving properties of “taking of the waters”. With aerated water for all how can this be a bad outcome?