Developing a reliability-based design method for CO2 pipelines

The objective of the new joint industry project is to generate data from field-scale tests to support the development of a design basis for CO2 pipelines that can be incorporated into national and international industry standards. The project will include the following activities:

1.     Establishing new, field-scale testing capabilities in Canada to address CO2 pipeline challenges. This will include equipment to:

a.     Prepare large volumes of CO2 with impurities representative of various carbon capture technologies

b.    Circulate, heat and pressurize the CO2 to representative pipeline operating conditions

c.     Conduct burst tests on pipeline segments up to 100 m long

d.    Instrumentation to monitor pipe burst and fracture propagation.

2.     Conducting shock tube tests at existing facilities to characterize the decompression behaviour of various mixtures of CO2 and impurities

3.     Conducting field-scale pipeline burst tests to characterize fracture propagation and arrest in various pipeline materials

4.     Distilling the test results into the information required to support the development of new industry guidelines and standards