EXTERNAL PUBLICATIONS

SUMMARY

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is likely to form a significant part of the UK’s strategy for achieving its Kyoto targets for CO2 emission reduction. CO2 is not currently regulated as a dangerous fluid under the Pipeline Safety Regulations (PSR) so further investigation is required to determine if it should be re-classified.

This project continues previous work (Moonis and Wilday, 2008) that recommended further investigation into the possibility of including CO2 as a dangerous fluid under the PSR. This previous work suggested that in terms of hazard range and hazard footprint area, CO2 should be classified as a dangerous substance but that further analysis would be required in terms of risk.

PHAST (commercial consequence modelling software) and TPRAM (HSE land-use planning software) were used to perform dispersion and risk modelling respectively for a release of CO2, so that the risk associated with the release could be determined. MISHAP (HSE land-use planning software) was also used to obtain the associated risks for methane (natural gas) with similar inputs to the CO2 modelling. Comparison between the risk values should determine if a CO2 release generates similar risks at distances that are smaller, equivalent or larger than natural gas.

This report and the work it describes were funded by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). Its contents, including any opinions and/or conclusions expressed, are those of the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect HSE policy.