Laboratory experiments to simulate CO2 ocean disposal. Draft technical progress report, August 15, 1995--February 15, 1996

摘要

The primary objective of this investigation is to obtain experimental data that can be applied to assess the technical feasibility and the environmental impacts of oceanic containment strategies to limit atmospheric emissions of carbon dioxide from coal and other fossil fuel combustion systems. In most systems proposed to date, CO2 extracted from a combustor is liquefied and transported to the deep ocean via a submerged conduit and discharged, usually as a jet. Hydrodynamic instability induces break-up of the jet into droplets which will be buoyant at depths above 3,000 m. Dissolution of the rising droplets may be inhibited by a solid hydrate film that forms on the surface of the droplets. The present investigation seeks to address several of the major technical uncertainties by conducting two categories of laboratory tests which will: (1) characterize size spectra and velocities of the dispersed CO2 phase in the near-field of the atomized jet; and (2) estimate rates of mass transfer from single rising droplets of liquid CO2 encased in a thin hydrate shell.