Geo engineering: Prometheus' Promise
© 2019 EPFL
Prof. Lyesse Laloui talks about CO2 sequestration during an RTS broadcast entitled “Prise de Terre”. The latter focuses on major ecological and environmental issues of our planet, tackling their scientific, economic, social and cultural aspects.
Different options can be mobilized in the attempt to reduce or even reverse the effects of climate change, among which, CO2 sequestration emerges as the leading alternative. The excess CO2 can be injected in deep underground reservoirs, where it will remain trapped underneath impermeable cap rocks, before slowly mineralizing as time passes. The most natural of alternatives, CO2 sequestration is no more dangerous than typical petroleum industries as it uses the same surface infrastructure. When looking deeper, induced seismicity and fault reactivation problems remain probable, though manageable with further big scale research and professional expertise that remain to be seen in Switzerland with a first real scale pilot project.