Berlin 2005 – wissenschaftliches Programm

Bereiche | Tage | Auswahl | Suche | Downloads | Hilfe

SYKE: Klima und Energie

SYKE 2: Klima und Energie

SYKE 2.1: Hauptvortrag

Dienstag, 8. März 2005, 17:15–18:00, TU HFT101

Experiments on the Ocean Disposal of Fossil Fuel CO₂ — •Peter G. Brewer — Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, 7700 Sandholdt Road, Moss Landing, CA 95039-9644, USA

Ocean disposal of fossil fuel CO₂ is the strategy now in use by all nations on a massive scale to reduce atmospheric build up of this unseen artifact of mankind’s use of fossil energy. The ocean has already absorbed some 500 billion tons of CO₂, and the net invasion rate across the air-sea interface is now about 1 million tons of CO₂ per hour. Yet this ”passive” disposal is slow enough that the build-up of CO₂ in the atmosphere continues, with attendant concerns over climate change. The suggestion of active, direct ocean CO₂ disposal was first made over 25 years ago, but it is only recently that the first field experimental work has been carried out. We have now developed the skills to safely transport, and precisely measure the behavior of, experimental quantities of CO₂ at ocean depths of 4000m. The physical behavior of CO₂ is complex, with the transition from gas to a highly compressible immiscible liquid, and the formation of a solid hydrate. It was widely believed that the disposal of CO₂ as a solid hydrate on the ocean floor would result in permanent disposal, but both theory and experiment now show that the dissolution rate into unsaturated ocean water is rapid. Here we show new results from recent experiments, and examine the fate of CO₂ on the ocean floor exposed to physical forcing, and some of the environmental consequences of both possible active, and the far larger passive, ocean disposal.