Battelle began pumping 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide into a well in northern Michigan today in a test of whether the greenhouse gas can be stored underground.

The 3,500-foot well, located near Gaylord, Mich., is the research giant’s first test of whether salt-water aquifers can hold carbon dioxide. Officials with U.S. Department of Energy, which is funding most of the $6 million project, say it’s the first test of its kind east of the Mississippi River.

The stakes are high for this and similar tests Battelle plans in Ohio and Kentucky. Salt-water aquifers are thought to be the future permanent storage sites for the billions of tons of carbon dioxide coal-fired power plants emit each year.

“The (salt water) formations that we’re looking at, there is very little known about them,” said John Litynski, project manager for the Department of Energy. “We’ll get a wealth of information just from doing these small projects.”

Companies nationwide are scrambling for ideas on how to store carbon dioxide as Congress is expected to begin regulating emissions in the coming years.

About 90 percent of the electricity generated in Ohio comes from coal. Ohio power plants spew more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide a year, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates.

The 10,000 tons Battelle is injecting into the Michigan well is less than 0.01 percent of Ohio power-plant emissions. Litynski and David Ball, Battelle’s project manager, said these tests should lead to larger experiments of at least 1 million tons.

“These projects could be looked at very much as stepping stones,” Ball said.

A similar test should be run this fall using carbon dioxide from FirstEnergy’s R.E. Burger power plant, located along the Ohio River near Shadyside in eastern Ohio.

A third test will involve Duke Energy’s East Bend power station in Kentucky, located southwest of Cincinnati. Ball said Battelle hopes to drill a well there next year.

The Michigan test takes carbon dioxide from a natural gas processing plant owned by Detroit-based DTE Energy. The plant strips impurities, including carbon dioxide, from raw natural gas after it’s pumped out of the ground.

The gas is injecting the gas with the help of equipment used by another company, Core Energy, which uses carbon dioxide in that area to help pump oil out of depleted wells.

Ball said researchers will use seismic monitors and other devices to track the carbon-dioxide plume in the salt water. They will compare what actually happens against their estimates on how the gas should move and react underground.

Researchers think aquifers like this could store about 1,000 years’ worth of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and other industrial sources.

Last year, Battelle drilled a hole 8,695 feet into a parcel of land in western Tuscarawas County to see whether Ohio’s geology could accommodate carbon dioxide storage. No gas has been pumped into the well.

The aquifer tests are supported by businesses, universities and state agencies. Columbus-based American Electric Power and Ohio State University are providing technical and/or financial support.

Of the tests’ $18.1 million cost, about $3.8 million will come from companies and universities, Litynski said.

John Austerberry, a DTE spokesman, said the company hopes the test will prove carbon dioxide will stay trapped deep underground.

“We do expect there will be (federal) restrictions on carbon emissions coming down the line fairly quickly,” Austerberry said. “We want to be prepared.”

shunt@dispatch.com