Pictures of the Future      Spring 2008

Sequestration: A Key Transitional Technology

Professor Reinhard Hüttl, 50, is the scientific director of the GeoForschungs- Zentrum in Potsdam, the German Research Center for Geosciences. A geoscientist, Hüttl formerly worked as an environmental expert in the Council of Advisers of the German Federal Government.

Is underground sequestration of carbon dioxide the solution to the climate-change problem?

Hüttl: We have to look at things realistically. Even if CO₂SINK works as planned, the process chain of removal, transport, injection, and monitoring involves a great deal of effort and is still very expensive. Also, coal-fired power plants with CO₂ removal lose a considerable amount of efficiency, which must be compensated for with more fuel or new technologies to increase efficiency. So CO₂ sequestration is a transitional technology. But we can’t do without it if we want to act responsibly, because most of our power will continue to come from fossil fuels in the foreseeable future. Our project is therefore an important building block for a more environmentally compatible method of energy production for the coming decades. The process is already of interest for increasing yields during petroleum and natural gas extraction.

Will the Ketzin project come to an end after 60,000 t of CO₂ have been stored?

Hüttl: I don’t think so. In Ketzin we can still learn a lot about CO₂ sequestration and the short, medium, and long-term behavior of CO₂ underground. The Ketzin test site is ideal for more experiments, for instance for storing the world’s first CO₂ from a coal-fired power plant and for the underground sequestration of CO₂ separated from biomass during gas production. We also have plans for other projects in Germany and abroad.

How has the public responded to the project?

Hüttl: Many people, especially in Germany, are skeptical of new industrial-scale technologies. But in Ketzin there used to be an underground natural gas storage reservoir at the same spot and people are used to that idea, so we haven’t had a problem with acceptance of this project. And of course CO₂ isn’t poisonous or radioactive. If it does escape at some point, which we don’t expect, we’ll see that with our monitoring system and, if necessary, we’ll be able to just blow it away in the air.

                                                                      Interview conducted by Bernd Müller