Hazards from carbon dioxide capture, transport and storage

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a developing technology which raises a number of issues in terms of safety. CCS involves a chain of processes comprising capture of carbon dioxide, transport and injection into underground storage. In work carried out for the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme, a number of high-level hazard identification (HAZID) studies have been performed with the help of industry experts. The HAZIDs considered a carbon capture and storage chain involving capture, pipeline transport and injection. HAZID has been performed at a high-level for such a CCS chain with three types of capture technology and using pipeline transport. It is hoped that the results of the HAZID studies will be of use to those carrying out CCS projects, but should not be a substitute for them carrying out a full suite of integrated hazard management processes. A number of example hazards have been described to raise awareness of the range of hazards in a CCS process and to identify barriers which could prevent, minimise, control or mitigate CCS hazards. Bow-tie diagrams have been produced to record the information from this study and to organise it in a systematic way so that it is far less likely that contributors to and mitigators of hazards will be missed. The diagrams are available in Excel spreadsheet format so that they can be used as the starting point for development by specific CCS projects. CCS technology is still advancing and a number of knowledge gaps in terms of safety have been identified which require further development.     

Risk assessment in a hypothetical network pipeline in UK transporting carbon dioxide

With the advent of Carbon Capture and Storage technology (CCS) the scale and extent of its handling is set to increase. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) capture plants are expected to be situated near to power plants and other large industrial sources. Afterward CO₂ is to be transported to storage site using one or a combination of transport media: truck, train, ship or pipeline. Transport by pipeline is considered the preferred option for large quantities of CO₂ over long distances. The hazard connected with this kind of transportation can be considered an emerging risk and is the subject of this paper.The paper describes the Quantitative Risk Assessment of a hypothetical network pipeline located in UK, in particular the study of consequences due to a CO₂ release from pipeline.The risk analysis highlighted that some sections of pipeline network cross densely populated areas. For this reason, some changes in the original path of the network have been proposed in order to achieve a significant reduction in the societal risk.