Flow characteristics and dispersion during the vertical anthropogenic venting of supercritical CO2 from an industrial scale pipeline

Abstract

Pressurized pipelines represent the most reliable and cost effective way of transporting captured CO2 from fossil fuel-fired electricity generation plants for subsequent sequestration. Leakage of CO2 through a small puncture is the most common form pipeline failure during normal operation; such failures could lead to fracture. The study of pipeline depressurization and inventory dispersion behavior is of paramount importance for assessing the possibility of fracture propagation and the impact of CO2 pipeline releases on the surrounding environment. A large-scale fully instrumented pipeline (258 m long, 233mm i.d.) was constructed to study the pressure response, phase transition and dispersion of gaseous, dense and supercritical phase CO2 during vertical leakage through a 15 mm diameter orifice. The fluid pressures and temperatures in the pipeline were recorded to study the pressure response and phase transition inside the pipeline. Video cameras and CO2 concentration sensors were used to monitor the formation of the visible cloud and the gas concentration distribution in the far-field. There was a “two cold, intermediate hot” phenomenon during the vertical release in the dense and supercritical release due to the dry ice particle accumulation near the orifice. The intersection of the jet flow and settling CO2 mixture resulted in complex visible cloud forms in dense CO2 release.