For more than a decade, scientists from Exxon Mobil Corp. have been injecting a dense carbon-dioxide mixture deep into the rock beneath southwest Wyoming.

The gooey liquefied gases, the unmarketable by-product of fossil fuel exploration, are injected back into the earth for permanent storage inside a dome-shaped geologic structure more than three miles deep.

University of Wyoming scientists are now trying to learn what happens to the gases after injection. The answers could yield vital clues about how to safely store large quantities of CO2, the greenhouse gas thought by many to be a major factor in global warming.

A team of scientists, led by UW School of Energy Resources professor Carol Frost, is partnering with Exxon Mobil and the U.S. Geological Survey to leverage the information into a pioneering effort to sequester CO2 in southwest Wyoming.

Those familiar with the project say it could help make Wyoming a major player in the emerging science of CO2 sequestration. It could also help make the state an attractive destination for underground storage of CO2 from America's coal-fired power plants and other sources, they said.

"Our ultimate goal is to put large quantities of CO2 into the ground and design a monitoring system so that we can demonstrate to the public that it's possible to design programs where CO2 is injected and monitored," Frost said.

Seeing green energy

Recent statewide polls show that most Wyoming residents are unconvinced that humans are the cause of increasing global temperatures. But that's not the case elsewhere.

Voters in big states including California are putting serious pressure on their elected officials to increase the amount of "green" energy such as wind and solar used in their states, and decrease reliance on coal-fired power plants, which are a major producer of CO2.

That could be bad news for Wyoming's coal industry, which provides about 20 percent of the nation's electrical power and comprises a major sector of the state economy.

The UW project is part of the government's attempts to make coal energy greener and keep Wyoming's coal industry viable by reducing CO2 into the atmosphere.

"The bottom line is everyone wants green power," Frost said.

UW launched the project in September with a $1.5 million federal appropriation secured by U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.

The first phase will focus on the background information and procedures needed to prepare for geologic carbon sequestration. Permitting and drilling will follow.

The ultimate goal is the injection of large quantities of CO2 into a geologic structure deep under southwest Wyoming called the Madison Formation that can be tested and monitored over time.

"We're designing a system where we can monitor and measure and verify what's going on in the subsurface," Frost said.

Scientists already know how to transform CO2 into a dense "supercritical" liquid that can be injected deep into the earth.

Once injected, the slimy ooze pushes its way into porous rocks, filling massive underground structures called pore spaces.

But other questions remain unanswered.

Will the supercritical CO2 find its way to the surface? Will the pressure exerted on the ooze at 18,000 feet underground force it into areas where it's not welcome? What will it do to groundwater?

Incentives to succeed

It will take time and complex mathematics to answer those questions. Frost said Wyoming is a perfect place to do the science.

For one thing, the state already has relationships with experienced extraction companies like Exxon Mobil to jump-start the science.

"We really benefit from their experience and knowledge," Frost said.

Wyoming also has an enormous economic incentive to see the project succeed, as the state's coal industry could depend on a viable CO2 sequestration system.

Wyoming also has the potential for immense underground CO2 storage capacity, State Geologist Ron Surdam said.

"We think Wyoming has a significant amount" of underground CO2 storage space, Surdam said.

Another asset soon to arrive in the state is the National Center for Atmospheric Research supercomputing facilities in Cheyenne. UW scientists will have access to one-fifth of the computing power.

All that number-crunching power could prove invaluable as scientists work to predict the underground movements of sequestered CO2 over long periods of time, Frost said.

Pioneering legislation

Wyoming is already on the forefront of national carbon sequestration efforts from a regulatory standpoint.

Last March, Gov. Dave Freudenthal signed into law two measures that resolved ownership and regulation issues critical to the state's efforts to lead the way in carbon sequestration technologies.

The state-of-the-art legislation specifies that owners of the land surface also own the underground CO2 storage space. A second new law set up a state regulatory framework for carbon sequestration projects.

The laws are intended to create legal stability for companies wishing to sequester carbon in Wyoming, and establish the rights of landowners.

"We've got a really together state that is really forward looking about this energy economy," Frost said.

This January, the state Legislature will attempt to tackle a couple of other issues directly related to CO2 sequestration: who is liable for the CO2 once it's underground, and how to compensate owners of the pore space.

A draft of the first bill would place the liability for the injected CO2 on the entity that does the injecting, not on the landowner.

Compensating landowners for the use of their land - even those who may not want to participate - could prove tricky, said state Rep. Tom Lubnau, R-Gillette, one author of the legislation.

"Because nobody has ever done this before, and there are no models, we are treading in unplowed fields," Lubnau said. "We have to think things through and be very careful as we move ahead."

A new state industry?

The rewards for a viable CO2 sequestration system in Wyoming could be enormous, state officials said.

In addition to helping secure the state's coal resources, it could spawn a new industry that would require skilled workers including drillers, pipe fitters and welders - roughly the same kinds of jobs needed in the natural gas industry, Frost said.

New pipelines would be required to transport the CO2 from power plants across the nation to Wyoming. Well-paid scientists would be needed to develop and enhance the technology.

Other efforts to develop carbon sequestration are under way across the country. The U.S. Department of Energy is working on seven regional CO2 sequestration projects in 42 states.

But some Wyoming officials think the UW project could be just as important, and could yield results faster and for less money.

Frost said the UW project is perhaps more nimble, more cost effective, and could be completed in far less time than the 15 years expected to finish the larger federal projects.

"We want to beat that (timeline), and I think we are well on the way," Frost said.

Contact Star-Tribune reporter Jared Miller at (307) 632-1244 or at jared.miller@trib.com.