In the first study of its kind, scientists have discovered that carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources such as power stations, has a distinctive chemical fingerprint – firmly distinguishing it from other naturally occurring CO2.
Much like an individual human fingerprint record, researchers from the University of Edinburgh uncovered that captured CO2 and CO2 from natural sources such as geological storage reservoirs and drinking water aquifiers both have different and unique chemical prints.
As a result, the investigation discovered that the CO2 being injected underground in carbon capture and storage (CCS) does not need to have expensive chemical tracers added in order to monitor that it is effectively contained.
This paves the way for natural fingerprints to be used to track the CO2 once it is injected underground for storage
This advance will help to monitor safe storage of CO2 captured from these industrial sources and will seek to bolster the development of CCS technology.
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