Richard Middleton was part of a team led by Nathan Moodie that explored the potential to effectively and permanently store anthropogenic CO₂ under the Colorado Plateau in Utah. Results show that the Navajo sandstone formation in this area has the capacity to securely store at least 1.3 billion tonnes of CO₂, suggesting the injection site and surrounding geology are suitable locations for commercial-scale geologic carbon storage (GCS). The study was part of the DOE-funded CarbonSAFE Rocky Mountains Phase I project that examined the efficacy of storing CO₂ emissions from the power generation and heavy industry in central Utah’s favorable geology.

Paper: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/12/4/398