UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Center for CO2 Storage Modeling, Analytics, and Risk Reduction Technologies (CO2-SMART) — a partnership with the University of Southern California (USC) centered on the event of sensible methods for underground carbon dioxide storage — has grown to contain college researchers throughout Penn State, with plans taking form for a workshop in 2026.
Funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, CO2-SMART brings collectively management from the Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences (EMS) and the Viterbi School of Engineering at USC, positioning the crew to advertise industrial decarbonization at scale.
Their cost is to construct a cooperative analysis program amongst college companions guided by consultants from authorities, business, nationwide laboratories and foundations. First announced in 2024, the interdisciplinary effort now contains Penn State analysis contributors in EMS, the College of Engineering and Penn State Dickinson Law.
“Carbon research has always been in our research footprint at Penn State,” mentioned Sanjay Srinivasan, director of the Penn State EMS Energy Institute and the John and Willie Leone Family Chair in Energy and Mineral Engineering. “Our rich research legacy in the transformation of carbon, our expansive capacity in geosciences and subsurface engineering and our expertise working on industry-relevant problems make Penn State a natural fit to collaborate with USC.”
Led at USC by Behnam Jafarpour, professor of chemical engineering and materials science, and at Penn State by Srinivasan, CO2-SMART targets capturing industrial CO2 emissions earlier than they attain the environment. Sequestering important portions in geologic formations would diminish a significant contributor to local weather change, researchers say.
Captured at energy crops and different industrial services, the fuel could be injected into naturally sealed underground geologic formations like deep saline aquifers. These formations are usually greater than a kilometer beneath the floor — naturally safeguarding the storage of the fuel.
But implementing the idea at business scale is layered. It requires addressing quite a lot of scientific and monetary challenges, equivalent to CO2’s advanced interactions with underground rock and the economics of discipline work and operations. Further, business pursuits have to observe regulatory frameworks and ensure staff are skilled for the job.
CO2-SMART is growing the strategy’s viability with shut relationships amongst principal stakeholders — together with CO2 emitters, injection-site operators, service firms and regulators — in addition to analysis scientists. The long-term mission is to advance science and expertise for storage that’s each protected and cost-effective.
Penn State’s expertise in making use of scientific discovery for sensible makes use of helped safe its function within the middle, Srinivasan mentioned. So did its document in seismic exploration and modeling, utilized coverage and useful resource economics.
“We are redeploying subsurface expertise for new purposes in a new era,” Srinivasan mentioned. “As fossil fuels continue to play a vital part amid the transition to more varied energy sources, many scientists agree carbon sequestration is a must to support the shift. … The carbon has to be disposed — and Penn State is among the institutions most qualified to develop those pathways. It’s a natural extension of work we’ve been doing for decades.”
Innovations vital for carbon sequestration embrace mechanisms to characterize injection websites precisely, monitor displacement of injected CO2 and handle reservoir stress, the researchers famous.
CO2-SMART lined up business collaborators throughout its first yr and is in search of extra, mentioned Anne Menefee, assistant professor within the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Penn State and a contributor to the challenge. As an engineer, she defined the trouble merges elementary science with the nuances of coverage and regulation.
“If you ignore technical constraints, then you’re designing policy that won’t be successful or sustainable in the long run,” mentioned Menefee, who can be a school affiliate with Penn State’s EMS Energy Institute. Her work focuses on decreasing dangers and evaluating impacts of carbon-sequestration applied sciences.
Another want is a clearer authorized panorama round legal responsibility and regulation, Menefee mentioned. CO2-SMART collaborators together with Seth Blumsack, professor within the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, and Hannah Wiseman, professor of regulation with twin appointments in EMS and Penn State Dickinson Law, convey backgrounds in authorized precedent and limits of presidency authority. They co-direct the Center for Energy Law and Policy on the University.
Blumsack additionally helps characterize Penn State in SPARK 2050, a collection of Pennsylvania summits that convene multi-stakeholder discussions on the commonwealth’s insurance policies and route in vitality.
“It’s very important that we be present and have a leadership role in these types of initiatives,” Blumsack mentioned of Penn State. “We’re a land-grant institution. We’re a pan-Pennsylvania institution. In a space where decision-makers are bombarded with messages from specific interests, we can be a neutral convener, provide a broad perspective and demonstrate thought leadership.”
Tieyuan Zhu, affiliate professor within the Penn State Department of Geosciences, is one other CO2-SMART contributor. As a geophysicist, he gives technical experience in imaging near-surface geological buildings and sequestered CO2.
Zhu has been researching CO2 storage for greater than a decade, he mentioned. His focus is ensuring storage is protected for the long run and with minimal leakage. His emphasis contains environment friendly monitoring that isn’t cost-prohibitive for business.
“Through CO2-SMART, we can establish open dialogue with industry partners to support immersive research that creates practical solutions and expands collaboration,” Zhu mentioned.
By late 2025, CO2-SMART counted collaborating organizations that span the vitality and utility sectors and governmental companies, with a number of tasks deliberate. Organizers are arranging a CO2-SMART workshop for summer season 2026 at Penn State.
“From a Penn State and an Energy Institute perspective, it makes perfect sense for us to do this work,” Srinivasan mentioned. “The institute routinely represents expertise from across the college. Carbon sequestration calls on us for an all-hands push.”