Researchers at the University of Leeds have a potential solution to the world's climate change problem: pump all that harmful carbon dioxide being produced down into the earth.

A university study in the December issue of the periodical Geology showed porous sandstone that has been drained of oil by energy companies could act as a safe reservoir for excess carbon dioxide. The sandstone reacts with injected fluids more quickly than had previously been predicted, the researchers said, which means it can capture the carbon dioxide and prevent it from leaking back to the surface.

"If CO2 is injected underground, we hope that it will react with the water and minerals there in order to be stabilized," Bruce Yardley, a professor in the school of earth and environment, said in a release. 

"That way it spreads into its local environment rather than remaining as a giant gas bubble which might ultimately seep to the surface. It had been thought that reaction might take place over hundreds or thousands of years, but there's a clear implication in this study that if we inject carbon dioxide into rocks, these reactions will happen quite quickly making it far less likely to escape."

In studying the Miller oilfield in the North Sea, the researchers examined the seawater that BP PLC had been pumping over a seven-year period into reservoirs to speed the flow of oil. They found that the extracted seawater, when compared to the water that was there before, was rich in silicates, which had dissolved into the injection in less than a year. That is the type of reaction that would be needed to make carbon dioxide stable in the rock, the researchers said.

The research also gave a clear indication that carbon dioxide planted deep underground could react and become quickly assimilated with ordinary rocks, they added.

The study suggests a possible long-term solution to safely storing carbon dioxide gas, which is created through energy generation and is a cause of global warming, the researchers said.