RE: Bias in Science, Part 2

Randy, I would add to your analysis.

Most of what Baumgardner cites are examples from coal or graphite. I know
that coal will adsorb a fairly large quantity of CO2. My view of most of
the cases Baumgardner cites is that once the coal is brought to the surface,
modern CO2 is adsorbed. Some people are looking at coals as places to dump
the anthropogenic carbon dioxide precisely because it adsorbs lots of CO2.
I wish Baumgardner would address that. At least if I were refereeing the
article, I would want that addressed.

Hal Gluskoter', Ron W. Stanton', Romeo M. Flores', Peter D. Warwick (1) U.
S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA (2) U.S. Geological Survey, lIS 939,
Denver, CO (3) U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA

Adsorption of Carbon Dioxide and Methane in Low-Rank Coals and the Potential
for Sequestration of Carbon Dioxide

Early studies that compared the adsorption of both carbon dioxide and
methane in coals were done, principally, on bituminous coal samples from the
United States and Canada. At normal reservoir temperatures, these coals
were found to adsorb approximately twice the volume of carbon dioxide as
methane. This two-to-one ratio has been widely reported in the literature
and has approached the status of conventional wisdom. In contrast, new
adsorption. isotherms determined on 13 samples of low-rank coals (lignite
and sub¬bituminous) from the Northern Great Plains and Texas demonstrate
that these coals can adsorb from 6 to 18 times more carbon dioxide than
methane.

There is a statistically significant correlation between the carbon
dioxide/methane adsorption ratios to the rank of the coals; and lignites
have the highest adsorption ratios. However, the amounts of carbon dioxide
adsorbed by the coals in our suite of samples do not correlate with coal
rank parameters. such as calorific value and moisture. The methane
adsorption volumes do correlate with rank. Although low-rank coals generally
have much lower adsorption potential for methane than coals of higher rank,
they should not be overlooked as potential sites for the sequestration of
carbon dioxide from fossil fuel combustion. The low-rank coals may adsorb as
much, or more, carbon dioxide than has been reported for the bituminous
coals. In addition to sequestration of the carbon dioxide, injection of
carbon dioxide into unmineable, low-rank coal beds may also enhance the
extraction of methane.”

AAPG Convention Abstracst 2002, p. a64

 
Received on Sun May 29 21:22:47 2005