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GREENVILLE — Efforts to limit greenhouse gas emissions are going underground here — literally.

The federal government is funding the bulk of a $92.8 million project that would inject 1 million tons of compressed carbon dioxide emissions from an ethanol plant into a well more than half a mile deep.

"In the United States, it hasn't been done at this scale in a single well so far," said Neeraj Gupta of Columbus-based Battelle, a leading partner in the project.

Before the four-year injection period begins in 2010 at The Andersons Marathon Ethanol LLC plant, scientists will research whether the technology — called carbon sequestration — could trigger seismic activity at the Greenville site.

Seismic activity was linked to deep well injection in Colorado in the 1960s, including earthquakes with Richter magnitudes of 5.1 and 5.2.

Significant tremors in the Greenville area are unlikely, according to officials at Battelle, which manages the Midwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership. MRCSP is contributing nearly $32 million for the project, including $3 million in state funding through the Ohio Coal Development Office. The federal government is paying $61 million.

"We're pretty confident in the technology that exists and that we can do this properly," said Chuck Lowe, a geologist in the Underground Injection Control group with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which issues permits for such wells.

Currently unregulated, carbon dioxide is a nonflammable, nontoxic gas thought to contribute to global warming. Forced into the ground under pressure, it should stay within a mile of the injection. A 500-foot thick layer of dense rock would cap it, according to a project proposal.

"We think it is highly unlikely that the carbon dioxide is going to migrate upward into drinking water," said David Ball, MRCSP project manager.