Dr. Vaibhav Bahadur, an affiliate member of the Texas Materials Institute, has recently published in the Chemical Engineering Journal on a practical and cost-effective way to sequester CO₂ on the seabed. Bahadur, along with his co-authors Mark Hamalian and Karey Maynor, have studied a new method for carbon storage that uses tiny bubbles of CO₂ to form hydrates instead of simply injecting the carbon into underground reservoirs, as is currently done.
Using bubbles smaller than a millimeter, the team was able to rapidly create CO₂ hydrates (ice-like substances of water and CO₂). Their techniques doubled the rate at which these gas hydrates can be produced, making the method faster and more scalable for large-scale carbon storage. Importantly, the process works well with seawater and is completely chemical additives-free, which makes this technology environment-friendly.
Read more at "Influence of bubble delivery parameters on the formation kinetics and composition of carbon dioxide hydrate slurry," in Chemical Engineering Journal.
