<p>CO2 is commonly injected as part of enhanced oil recovery (&quot;fracking&quot;) schemes.  A fraction of this CO2 is likely to stay underground and one could argue that this is a form of carbon sequestration, but unless the project is carefully designed to ensure that the CO2 stays in place and that hazards due to induced seismicity and damage to drinking water sources are prevented,  it's hard to argue that this is effective long term carbon sequestration strategy or document how much carbon has been sequestered.</p>
<p>See the &quot;45Q&quot; 2022 US tax credits for carbon sequestration for example.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-12T19:20:21.570Z
Very interesting, thank you.
Aaron
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-12T02:31:03.470Z
2024-04-12T02:31:03.470Z
Brian Borchers
<p>There is between 2 to 3 times (by mass) more CO2 produced when fossil fuels are burned than the amount of fuel; depleted oil and gas wells appear physically incapable of storing the full amount of CO2 produced by burning what was extracted from them.</p>
<p>The long term durability of such storage is unknown; locations like fracking fields where boreholes including exploratory ones already exist present problems, with uncertainty about all their locations or how well (if at all) they were plugged.</p>
<p>The economics of CCS are also deeply problematic, given that doing so is costly in equipment and energy - a gas pipeline makes money for the owners, but CO2 pipelines and pumping facilities are all costs. Primarily CCS is used as a way of NOT reducing emissions and most currently captured CO2 is used to enhance fossil fuel production or (eg Gorgon CCS in Australia) captures the CO2 that comes up with low quality gas, that must be removed in order to market and sell it, with a subsequent overall rise in global emissions.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-13T00:03:59.400Z
2024-04-13T00:03:59.400Z
Ken Fabian
<p>Assuming you could extract CO2 from the atmosphere, could you inject it in fracking wells to store it? Would CO2 likely escape? What would the effect of this be on ground stability etc. and on the oil there?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-11T18:33:53.623Z
Actually, we can extract CO2 from the atmosphere, but this consumes energy. There is a very natural way to extract CO2 from the atmosphere (or from the ocean water). It is called photosynthesis, uses only sunlight and was invented some 2 billion years ago. In the process, hydrogen is added to the CO2 turning it into cellulose, as a basic building material for plants.
Gyro Gearloose
CC BY-SA 4.0
2024-04-12T04:34:57.540Z
a pipeline will be buildt to transport CO2 from mainland europe to norway for storage in our oil wells under the sea floor,you can read about the project here:https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/environment-and-technology/carbon-capture-and-storage/ and here https://www.co2europipe.eu/Publications/D4.3.2%20-%20Karsto%20CO2%20Pipeline%20Project%20-%20Extension%20to%20a%20European%20Case.pdf
trond hansen
<climate-change>
Extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and injecting it into fracking wells
Aaron
# Extracting CO2 from the atmosphere and injecting it into fracking wells

(Asked by: username_0 on 2024-04-11)

Assuming you could extract CO2 from the atmosphere, could you inject it in fracking wells to store it? Would CO2 likely escape? What would the effect of this be on ground stability etc. and on the oil there?

**Tags:** climate-change

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Actually, we can extract CO2 from the atmosphere, but this consumes energy. There is a very natural way to extract CO2 from the atmosphere (or from the ocean water). It is called photosynthesis, uses only sunlight and was invented some 2 billion years ago. In the process, hydrogen is added to the CO2 turning it into cellulose, as a basic building material for plants.  
> **username_2**: a pipeline will be buildt to transport CO2 from mainland europe to norway for storage in our oil wells under the sea floor,you can read about the project here:https://www.norskpetroleum.no/en/environment-and-technology/carbon-capture-and-storage/ and here https://www.co2europipe.eu/Publications/D4.3.2%20-%20Karsto%20CO2%20Pipeline%20Project%20-%20Extension%20to%20a%20European%20Case.pdf  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_3 on 2024-04-12. Score: 1

CO2 is commonly injected as part of enhanced oil recovery ("fracking") schemes. A fraction of this CO2 is likely to stay underground and one could argue that this is a form of carbon sequestration, but unless the project is carefully designed to ensure that the CO2 stays in place and that hazards due to induced seismicity and damage to drinking water sources are prevented, it's hard to argue that this is effective long term carbon sequestration strategy or document how much carbon has been sequestered.

See the "45Q" 2022 US tax credits for carbon sequestration for example.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Very interesting, thank you.  

---

### Answer by username_4 on 2024-04-13. Score: 0

There is between 2 to 3 times (by mass) more CO2 produced when fossil fuels are burned than the amount of fuel; depleted oil and gas wells appear physically incapable of storing the full amount of CO2 produced by burning what was extracted from them.

The long term durability of such storage is unknown; locations like fracking fields where boreholes including exploratory ones already exist present problems, with uncertainty about all their locations or how well (if at all) they were plugged.

The economics of CCS are also deeply problematic, given that doing so is costly in equipment and energy - a gas pipeline makes money for the owners, but CO2 pipelines and pumping facilities are all costs. Primarily CCS is used as a way of NOT reducing emissions and most currently captured CO2 is used to enhance fossil fuel production or (eg Gorgon CCS in Australia) captures the CO2 that comes up with low quality gas, that must be removed in order to market and sell it, with a subsequent overall rise in global emissions.


---

