Device Made for the Moon May Aid in Carbon Sequestration on Earth

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https://eos.org/articles/device-made-for-the-moon-may-aid-in-carbon-sequestration-on-earth

By Bill Morris, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Carbon capture and storage (CCS) involves stripping carbon dioxide from emissions, pressurizing it into a “supercritical fluid,” then pumping it deep underground into porous rock reservoirs, where it will, in theory, remain entombed. Potential carbon storage sites include depleted oil and gas fields and deep saline aquifers. Although CCS technology has been around for decades, it has yet to be widely adopted. Partly, that’s because of the high cost of building sequestration plants, but it’s also due to lingering questions about how well the process actually works. Over extended periods, even a small amount of carbon dioxide leakage can become significant, and where storage sites are under the seabed, leakage can have profound effects on marine life. ...CCS monitoring typically relies on heavy seismic equipment mounted on trucks or ships. The equipment sends powerful vibrations into Earth’s crust and analyzes the sound waves that are reflected back. Japan’s ambition to explore the solar system, however, may have led to a breakthrough for carbon storage here on Earth. A team from the University of Tokyo and Kyushu University, led by Tsuji, developed a lightweight system, the Portable Active Seismic Source (PASS), designed to be carried aboard Mars and Moon landers that may also detect carbon leaks at sequestration sites. Scientists published their results in Seismological Research Letters last month. ...The PASS, which is just 10 centimeters in length, creates vibrations by means of a spinning wheel mounted with an off-center weight. Because of the device’s small size, the vibrations it produces are relatively weak, but the team uses software to “stack” hundreds of signals, amplifying the transmission enormously.… 

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