• Question: Which types of machines help you carry out the experiments for carbon capture and storage research?

    Asked by jonty2600 to Gemma on 25 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Gemma Purser

      Gemma Purser answered on 25 Jun 2012:

      Hi jonty2600
      To create the conditions that the carbon dioxide will be stored at underground we need three main things. Firstly we need a vessel to hold in the carbion dioxide, rocks and water, it is strong and unreactive. Secondly we have an oven to heat up the experiments and thirdly a syringe pump, these create really high pressures by squashing the gas or liquid inside them. Then when we come to sample the water that has reacted with the rock and carbon dioxide we can uses lots of analytical instruments and techniques such as Ion chromatography and Inductivley coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometer.They work out the concentrations of negative ions (anions) and positive ions (cations) in the sample. By looking at the concentration data we can work out what minerals have dissolved and which have been created.

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