Effect of terrain, environment and infrastructure on potential CO2 pipeline corridors: a case study from North-Central USA

Abstract

In this paper, a study has been undertaken with the objective to delineate the potential CO2 pipeline corridors through the north-central region of the USA including North Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Colorado to enable the implementation of carbon capture storage and utilization projects. A combination of GIS along with analytical hierarchy process is used to identify regions with high potential for pipeline development. A total of 19 thematic information layers have been utilized to map the study area which reflect the effect of ecology, environment and existent infrastructure towards laying new CO2 pipeline networks. Weights are assigned to each class in the thematic maps based on their characteristics, capacity of building and maintaining pipelines and the potential environmental risk of CO2 pipelines from the literature. A tract suitability index is developed which identified Western North Dakota, central Wyoming and Western Montana as regions highly suitable for development of CO2 pipelines. The study reveals that 54.5% of the region of interest is suitable for pipeline construction while 15.39% of land is classified as either poor or infeasible candidate for locating CO2 pipelines. It is also revealed that pipeline right-of-way, water bodies and population centres have the most significant impact on future pipeline development. The results of the study are also varied to show the effect different factors could have on the potential CO2 corridors and are then correlated with existent pipeline in study area to check the validity of the resulting analysis.