Proper site selection for CO2 geologic storage requires assessing the impact of potential leakage of CO2 from deep subsurface reservoirs to overlying drinking water aquifers
Elucidating dissolution kinetics and mechanisms at carbonate mineral–water interfaces is essential to many environmental and geochemical processes, including geologic CO2 sequestration in deep aquifers.
Previous methods for separating dissolved U(IV) from dissolved U(VI) under acidic anoxic conditions prior to laboratory analysis were ineffective with materials currently available commercially. ESD’s Jim Davis was recently part of an investigative team that examined three strong anion exchange resins for their efficiency in separating, recovering, and preserving both redox states during separation.
ESD geochemists Damien Daval, Giuseppi Saldi, and Kevin Knauss recently investigated the dissolution of a common silicate (diopside).
Director Alivisatos recently issued the call for proposals for the FY2014 Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program. All scientific staff from our Division are encouraged to think of potential innovative proposal topics.
ESD’s Susan Hubbard, John Coates, and Gary Andersen talk about the role of microbes in our energy future and the role of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) in a pair of short videos posted by the Medill News Service.
The AGU Fall Meeting in San Francisco last month (December 2012) was a great success, especially for LBNL’s Earth Sciences Division and our homebase at the site, the ESD booth—a zone of constant activity.
ESD’s Mack Kennedy participated in a reconnaissance investigation of noble gas radionuclides (39Ar, 81Kr, and 85Kr) in gas emissions from several geothermal features at Yellowstone National Park, to explore tracer applications of these nuclides in an active hydrothermal system.
Sequestering CO2 underground has its own set of environmental risks, including the potential migration of CO2 out of the storage reservoir and resulting acidification and release of trace constituents in shallow groundwater.
A team of scientists (including ESD’s Sirine Fakra, Roseann Csencsits, Kelly Wrighton, Ken Williams, and Jill Banfield) recently characterized planktonic microbial communities sampled from an aquifer in Rifle, Colorado, USA, close to the peak of iron reduction following in situ acetate amendment.
