Jul 12 - McClatchy-Tribune Business News Formerly Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News - Dave Ranney Journal-World, Lawrence, Kan.

About 40 scientists from across the nation gathered Tuesday at Kansas University for a three-day conference on a process called carbon sequestration.

They're looking for ways to slow global warming by capturing and injecting greenhouse gases into the earth to prevent release into the atmosphere.

"We know it can be done. We're doing it now on a very small scale," said Tim Carr, head of the energy research section at the Kansas Geological Survey.

"What we're trying to do is figure out how much (carbon dioxide) is out there, where it is and where we can store it -- the preferred term is 'sequester' -- and how much can we take," Carr said. "We're talking about taking huge amounts of data here and making sure it all lines up. That's not an easy task."

Eventually, he said, large producers of carbon dioxide -- power plants, refineries and fertilizer, cement and ethanol manufacturers -- could be expected to convert their emissions to liquid and pump them into depleted oil and gas fields, brine pools or deep, thin coal beds.

The process isn't new. For years, oil companies have used carbon-dioxide injections to better exploit a field's dwindling oil supply.

There's little danger, Carr said, of the carbon dioxide rising to the surface.

"The oil stayed down there 50 million years," he said. "As long as we're careful, the carbon dioxide will stay down there another 50 million years."

But carbon sequestration, Carr said, isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

"Look at Massachusetts. It generates a lot of (carbon dioxide), but it's sitting on top of granite. It doesn't have the storage capacity," he said. "Or Kansas: We have a lot of capacity, but on a national scale, we don't generate much carbon dioxide. There aren't that many people here."

The Gulf Coast, he said, would be a good place to start because of the region's industrialization and underground storage capacity.

"But really, this is about coming up with the best match," Carr said. "Who knows? Kansas may be perfect. That's what we're trying to find out."

The Kansas Geological Survey is host for the conference. All the researchers are tied to one of seven regional U.S. Department of Energy-funded "partnerships" charged with sorting through the technological, environmental and economic complexities of carbon sequestration.

"We're still in the research-and-development phase," said Charles Byrer, a project manager based at the National Energy Technology Center at Morgantown, W.Va.

"Carbon sequestration is an option," he said. "Our task now is to demonstrate its cost-effectiveness."