The work of Brian McPherson, one of the U’s top Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative researchers, might help put a stop to global warming.
After completing his doctoral work at the U, McPherson left for New Mexico to continue research. Ten years later, McPherson is back at the U, working with carbon dioxide.
McPherson is leading a team of researchers that will ultimately take carbon dioxide from power plants — which would usually go into the air — and push it hundreds of yards below the earth.
“The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is much higher than it’s ever been that we’ve been able to measure,” McPherson said.
Many people attribute excessive carbon dioxide in the atmosphere to global warming, he said. McPherson’s former professor, graduate school dean David Chapman, said the 2 percent who disagree can be called ostrich scientists because they keep their heads in the sand.
Chapman taught McPherson when he was a doctoral student at the U and found him to be a very serious and dedicated student.
“I’m very interested in his work now,” Chapman said. “I work in global warming, and Brian is trying to do something about coal power plants and not putting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.”
McPherson’s return to the U has brought him more than $67 million in public funding and $21 million in private funding.
“We still need at least $10 to $20 million to finish the project,” McPherson said. “We can get started without it, but I’m thinking about the long term.”
However, there is some concern that the technique, which is called carbon geosequestration, could have negative side effects.
Inserting large amounts of carbon dioxide into underground geological formations could assist in the creation of minor earthquakes or contaminate mineral sites like oil and gas fields.
McPherson and his lab researchers are running simulations to see the consequences of placing carbon dioxide underground.
“I don’t think CO2 would be a bad thing to go into oil fields,” McPherson said. “Oil can soak up a lot of CO2 compared to water and make sure it doesn’t spread elsewhere, but oil field owners wouldn’t like to pay the money it would cost to extract CO2 from oil fields.”
McPherson spends 65 to 70 hours a week between lab simulations, teaching and management. As overseer of the project, McPherson is forced to spend hours working with the Bureau of Land Management about injecting carbon dioxide into the land.
“I’ve been negotiating with drillers and geophysical companies to line up monitoring,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but I’ve hired some of the nation’s best to work at the U.”
Researchers in his lab don’t see him often because of his busy schedule, but they find him easy to get along with. He’s the lead investigator for the site in southern Utah. He teaches and is writing a book right now.
Injecting carbon dioxide into the land is projected to begin late December 2008, but in the meantime, McPherson tries to make time for his lab and teaching, both of which he enjoys. He taught hydrology at New Mexico Tech for 10 years, getting to know students and researchers alike.
“These students now are going to be running everything in a few short years,” he said. “We want to get them properly prepared, especially since this country has a dire shortage of scientists.”
When he’s not teaching, McPherson spends time with his wife, Stacy Ackerlind, a native Utahn who applied for the director of assessment position with Union Student Affairs when she moved with her husband back to Utah two years ago.
McPherson met his wife while completing his doctoral work in Utah when she was a U student.
“I met my wife when she was an undergrad student,” he said. “I thought she was a seismologist, and she intimidated me. I found out she was studying English, and she still intimidated me.”