Big Sky Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership — Validation Phase
Project # 42587
Primary Performing Organization:
Montana State University
Big Sky is one of seven Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnerships created by DOE in 2003 as part of a program to advance greenhouse gas mitigation. After two years of fact finding across the United States, the Regional Partnerships are engaged in individual carbon sequestration validation projects. Each Partnership project is distinct in its geology, land use, and population base. The Big Sky region includes Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, and eastern Oregon and Washington. The Big Sky validation project is a four-year effort devoted to validating promising geologic and terrestrial carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration opportunities within the Big Sky region. See Map.
The Big Sky region has a range of geologic sites for CO2 storage including deep saline formations, depleted oil reservoirs, deep unmineable coal seams, and mafic volcanic (basalt) formations (a distinguishing feature of the region’s geology). In the Validation Phase of the project, the Big Sky Partnership will conduct geologic field tests in prominent geological formations, to assess the viability and capacity of deep saline formations, and to characterize deep basalt formations. Concurrent efforts to evaluate effective modeling techniques and to derive adequate measuring, mitigation, and verification approaches will complement these field tests.
The Big Sky region also has extensive land area with land uses that provide tremendous potential for terrestrial carbon sequestration in forests, rangelands, and agricultural croplands. In the Validation Phase, the Big Sky Partnership will establish terrestrial field tests in cropland, forestland, and rangeland; explore the potential development and design of carbon markets by working directly with landowners to provide guidance on land management practices that maximize carbon storage and to develop initial portfolios; and conduct a remote sensing study of management practices and adoption trends in north-central Montana.
Contact:
Project Manager: David Lang, david.lang@netl.doe.gov
Related Papers and Publications: