Solutions to global warming may be within our grasp.

One idea is to pump fossil fuel emissions underground. Geologist Jeffrey McDonald of the Underground Injection Control Branch of the Environmental Protection Agency said the idea is not new but not very widespread, either.

“Injection of carbon dioxide to enhance oil and natural gas production has been going on in Texas for decades and is done on smaller scales in Michigan,” McDonald said.

But for all of the fossil-fuel burning industries to participate in pumping emission underground is “unrealistic, money-wise,” said Milivoje Kostic, NIU associate professor of mechanical engineering.

There is more weight in carbon dioxide after combustion. When putting the gases underground, it needs to be compressed or cooled into liquid.

“The problem is the cost to inject it there; that will require even more energy to do that,” Kostic said.

The solution of putting emissions underground would not be a temporary one.

“Aside from injection to enhance oil and gas production, the injected carbon dioxide will be for very long time frames,” McDonald said. “How long is unclear, but I think that we would like to have almost all of it stay deep in the ground for hundreds, if not thousands of years.”

However, there may be other possibilities more beneficial to our planet in its current stage.

Kostic said that instead of wasting emissions, we could pipe them to feed plants that will be used for fuel.

One of the most important solutions will be getting more efficiency from energy plants.

According to Kostic, most energy plants are working at a 33 percent rate of efficiency, meaning two-thirds of energy is simply thrown away.

If energy plants become more efficient, they will burn less coal and thus will burn fewer emissions.

Although CO2 injection is not currently taking place in Illinois, it is being seriously investigated.

According to McDonald, the Midwest Geological Sequestration Consortium (MGSC) has been conducting some experimental testing of CO2 injection in Illinois.

“The MGSC has completed some experimental injection already and is looking at a deeper, larger volume project, I believe injecting CO2 produced at an ethanol plant,” McDonald said.

Another program, FutureGen, may also result in CO2 injection in Illinois. The goal of FutureGen is to have no air emissions from coal power plants. The Department of Energy is still deciding where to build the experimental FutureGen, a coal gasification power plant.

There are two sites in Illinois, Tuscola and Mattoon, that are being considered for this plant, McDonald said.

According to FutureGen’s Web site, www.futuregenalliance.org, the plant will be using hydrogen to generate electricity while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide deep beneath the earth.