Deep beneath the priming coat in South Dakota ’s Black Hills , there lives a bacterium that has the potential to rapidly reverse carbon dioxide ( CO2 ) into a whole mineral under extreme conditions . If scientist figure out how to rein these bizarre bug , they could offer a fresh way to capture glasshouse gas in eat up fossil fuel reserves .
researcher at Soeder Geoscience LLC and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology recently went on a hunt for carbon - sequesteringmicrobesthat can manage with the intense temperature and pressures see beneath an oilfield .
They deal to root out three hopeful nominee . One of these was a species ofBacillusbacteria , locate 1,250 meters ( 4,100 feet ) beneath the earth at the bass underground laboratory in the US , the Sanford Underground Research Facility in the South Dakota Black Hills .
The two other mintage were aGeobacillusspecies , which is also accommodate to high hotness and pressure , andPersephonella marina , a “ hyperthermophile ” obtain living in thehydrothermal ventsof the Pacific Ocean that can allow temperature up to 110 ° one C ( 230 ° F ) , brine salinity , and high atmospheric pressure .
The bacterium were put through a series of lab experimentation that subject them to a scope of utmost pressures , temperature , and acidity .
Their preliminary results suggested the optimum conditions for the microbes to bring out calcite crystal from CO2were 500 times smashing than the pressure at sea level at 80 ° coulomb ( 178 ° atomic number 9 ) . Under these extreme conditions , the bacteria could convert CO2to carbonate crystals within 10 days .
The bacterium pull off this effort thanks to an enzyme call off carbonic anhydrase that catalyze the response between CO2and piss .
The void space left by depleted oil and gas William Claude Dukenfield arean ideal locationto store capture CO2 , thereby stopping it from entering the Earth ’s atmosphere where it acts as a greenhouse gas and drivesclimate variety .
Since these bacteria can go their magic under the coarse conditions find in depleted crude oil and natural gas fields , it open up the hypothesis of interject them into the underground voids and sequester the CO2permanently .
Furthermore , the solid carbonate could effectively work as a “ plug ” that stops residuary liquid and flatulence leaking out from the abandoned crude well .
While much of this is hypothetical for now , shape up incarbon seizure technologysuch as this could be an invaluable tool in tackling the climate crisis .
Of course , the possible action of C capturing should not contravene theurgent demand to reducethe burning of fossil fuel ; there ’s no item mop up the story when the bathroom is still overflowing .
The research was demo at theAmerican Geophysical Union conferencein San Francisco late last year .
[ H / T : New Scientist ]
