Bee Pollen Proposed as Check for CO2 Storage

How Bees, Balloons and Pollen Can Help CO2 Storage
Greenbang, 7/31/2009

US energy researchers say they can use bees, pollen and helium-filled balloons to make sure carbon sequestration sites are really keeping in CO2.

The technique, devised by scientists at the Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), involves “fingerprinting” stored CO2 with a chemical tracer that makes it readily identifiable from atmospheric carbon dioxide. The researchers can then check local beehives to see whether the bees bring back pollen with signs of the chemical tracer, or whether the bees themselves show signs of tracer from direct contact with plants…