Organised by Tiratsoo Technical, a division of Great Southern Press, and Clarion Technical Conferences, the annual International Forum on the Transportation of CO2 by Pipeline was held in Newcastle in June 2011, in association with the University of Newcastle.

Although there are over 7,000 km of operational CO2 pipelines worldwide, there are none to date that are actually transporting ‘captured’ CO2 (known as anthropogenic CO2) from power stations or similar greenhouse-gas emitters. The big issue surrounding anthropogenic CO2 is that, unlike its relatively-benign naturally-occurring or manufactured counterpart that is widely employed for enhanced oil recovery and other industrial uses, it is a high-pressure and high-temperature mixture of gases that can have unpredictable affects on the pipelines through which it is transported. Also, although generally non-toxic, all forms of CO2 are very dangerous at concentrations only a little above those naturally occurring in the atmosphere, due to asphyxiation.

The views of the UK Government and the European Commission (EC) were respectively described by Matthew Billson, Head of Technology Development in the Office of Carbon Capture and Storage at the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), and Jose Manuel Hernandez, a Policy Officer in the Coal and Oil Unit of the EC’s Directorate-General for Energy. Mr Billson described the UK government’s ‘road map’ for CCS, highlighting the needs to gather best-practice data to inform operational issues – such as integrity monitoring of CO2 pipelines – while at the same time identifying novel, lighter, and cheaper pipeline materials and compatible sealing and joining technologies. Mr Hernandez described the EC’s European Energy Programme for Recovery in which €1billion has been allocated for six CCS pilot projects, in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Italy, and Poland. Each of these has a pipeline aspect, ranging in length from 25 km to 175km. Mr Hernandez concluded that fossil fuels can only remain part of the energy mix if combined with CCS, and therefore a joint effort by government and industry is needed to realise the potential of CCS. To affect this, he concluded that the EC’s CCS directive has to be transposed quickly into national laws, sufficient funding has to be provided to support CCS demonstration projects, and considerable efforts are needed to work towards public acceptance.

Stanely Santos of the IEA’s UK-based Greenhouse Gas R&D Programme introduced the Forum to detailed and eloquent discussion on the issue of impurities. His ‘main message’, suitably emphasised, was that “it is not about the ‘big numbers’ for CO2 – it is everything about ‘what’s in it’ that should be of greater concern”. Mr Santos foresaw that a ‘bottom-up’ approach might be needed to establish an international standard for specification of CO2 used in CCS applications, based on a detailed assessment considering health and safety and operational issues, and developed on a case-by-case basis. He emphasised the importance of identifying the best available technology, and of understanding the economics of removal of non-CO2 components.

The issues of inspecting anthropogenic CO2 pipelines were discussed in two joint papers, the first by Julian Barnet and Ernie Holden, respectively of the UK’s National Grid and Pipeline Integrity Engineers, and the second by Jochen Spalink, Dr Hubert Lindner, and Thomas Beuker of Rosen Engineering in Germany. Messrs Barnet and Holden described the issues to do with in-line inspection (ILI) of high-pressure CO2 pipelines, and concluded that “the myth that CO2 pipelines cannot be inspected using ILI has now been dispelled”, pointing out that internal inspection of CO2 pipelines in both the gaseous and dense phase (to the same specification as oil and gas pipelines) is now a proven service, commercially available from at least three suppliers. Dr Linder and his Rosen colleagues took up this subject and presented an overview of their company’s approach, which recommends combined inspections using magnetic-flux leakage and shallow internal corrosion monitoring, recommended for baseline inspections and corrosion growth monitoring. Dr Lindner echoed the point that while CO2 is a challenging medium, ILI of CO2 pipelines is possible and Rosen’s experience with component wear in CO2 shows that it is not extreme; the gas’ solvent properties can lead to damage on cables, sensors, and connectors, and ways of mitigating these effects need to be in place.

The organisers of the Forum were delighted that National Grid, the UK’s largest pipeline operator and a company which is investing considerable amounts in research into the transportation of anthropogenic CO2, was willing to support the meeting by encouraging five presentations to be given on various aspects of this research work.

As well as the inspection issues mentioned above, the subjects included a review of crack arrest in gaseous-phase CO2 pipelines, by Julian Barnet and Pipeline Integrity Engineers’ David Jones; the decompression behaviour of CO2 in the gaseous phase, by Dr Andrew Cosham (of Atkins), David Jones, and Julian Barnet; methods for assessing risk from transportation of CO2, by Phil Cleaver of GL Noble Denton and co-authors; and a review of the COOLTRANS integrated CO2 dispersion studies, in a paper by a number of co-authors led by National Grid’s Russell Cooper. Mr Cooper was unfortunately unable to attend the Forum, and this latter presentation was given by Dr Jane Haswell of Pipeline Integrity Engineers, one of the paper’s co-authors, who earlier had stood-in for Mr Cooper as a session chairman.

Some of the scientific aspects of the affects of CO2 on pipeline steel were discussed by Dr Shildatiya Paul of TWI and his colleagues, who preceded a review of retrofitting crack arrestors to CO2 pipelines prepared by Professor Shuji Aihara and Tatsuya Fuji of Tokyo University. The following Forum session moved to a discussion of dispersion modelling under the chairmanship of Professor Martin Downie of Newcastle University. The first subject to be discussed was an analysis of CO2 dispersion into the environment by Giorgio Melis and colleagues from Italy’s Centro Sviluppo Materiali SpA, in association with co-authors from the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Meccanicaat the Università di Cagliari in Italy. Dr Trevor Drage and co-authors from Nottingham University then considered how adequate are the equations of state for measuring the physical properties of CO2 mixtures for CCS (there isn’t a simple answer!), and Professor Haroun Mahgerefteh and Dr Sergey Martynov from the Department of Chemical Engineering at University College, London, discussed modelling dry ice formation following a rapid decompression of a CO2 pipeline.

The Forum’s fifth session was chaired by Professor Jon Gibbins of the University of Edinburgh, and moved the discussion towards a review of networks and systems, and what might be considered less-scientific issues. James Watt of AMEC, an articulate and well-known spokesman on this subject, described how a common infrastructure for the UK could be developed, while Dr Harsh Pershad of Element Energy UK detailed the Tees Valley network. Professor Nilay Shah of Imperial College, London, provided a review of whole-systems modelling and network design for this purpose, while his Imperial College colleague Dr Tim Cockerill and his co-authors looked at systems’ analysis for CCS networks and their drivers, impacts, and regulation. The session drew to a close with a presentation by Caroline May of solicitors Norton Rose, who gave an update on the UK’s Pipeline Safety Regulations of 1996 and their application to this subject, following which Dan Lentell of the Professional Institute of Pipeline Engineers (PIPE) gave an interesting and timely personal view of the politics of CCS pipelines. Mr Lentell’s conclusions, which had been echoed to a great extent by other speakers who touched on the non-industry view of CO2 pipelines, were that affected communities should be involved from the start; non-public stakeholders should similarly be involved; contact between a scheme’s proposers and their opponents should be maintained and encouraged; and communications should be planned, ethical, and professional.

The Forum was designed not only to provide the review and discussion opportunities in a formal environment, but also allow delegates a lighter opportunity to continue their talk and to get to know each other.

The catalyst for this was a boat trip and dinner on the River Tyne, organised by the PIPE. The majority of the Forum delegates were able to enjoy this – albeit on a rather dull evening – and were joined by a number of full and student PIPE members; the weather was more than compensated for by the good food and bonhomie on board. This ‘tradition’ of a boat trip, in association with the Forum, was begun at last year’s event, and seems certain to evolve into a real tradition as it provides both an interesting view of Newcastle and Gateshead for visitors, as well as a fine opportunity to relax among friendly business colleagues and talk about anything other than CO2!

The Forum organisers are now beginning work on production of a book on this subject which will encompass many of the papers prepared for both this year’s and last year’s events. All those attending the events will be directly informed of the details.