Help Close a Critical Knowledge Gap in CO₂ Pipeline Integrity
The Industry Challenge
Many future CO₂ transportation systems will accept captured CO₂ from multiple industrial sources. These streams may contain different concentrations and combinations of impurities, including water, oxygen, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, hydrogen and other constituents.
While previous research has helped identify conditions where corrosive phases may form, important questions remain unanswered:
- Where does liquid drop-out accumulate inside a flowing pipeline?
- How do pipeline features such as low spots, branches and welds influence accumulation?
- Which combinations of impurities create the greatest risk?
- How can operators restore acceptable operating conditions after an upset event?
- What operating limits and mitigation strategies are appropriate?
These uncertainties influence pipeline design, operating limits, integrity management programs and CO₂ specification requirements.
Why a Joint Industry Project?
Existing corrosion studies have largely been conducted using static pressure vessels and autoclaves. These studies provide valuable corrosion-rate data, but they do not fully represent how liquid phases behave in an operating pipeline.
Developing a flowing dense-phase CO₂ test facility capable of controlling impurity concentrations, pressure, temperature and flow conditions is technically complex. It is also a challenge shared by operators across the emerging carbon capture and storage industry.
This JIP provides an opportunity for participants to combine resources, influence the test program and generate knowledge that benefits the broader industry.
Project Objectives
The project will generate data and insights to help industry:
- Understand liquid drop-out behaviour under flowing CO₂ pipeline conditions.
- Identify operating conditions and impurity combinations that may increase integrity risks.
- Evaluate corrosion behaviour and recovery following upset events.
- Support safer, more confident design, operation and integrity management of CO₂ transportation infrastructure.
Proposed Work Scope Summary
The Joint Industry Project will design, build and operate a specialized flowing dense-phase CO₂ test loop to investigate how impurities behave under representative pipeline operating conditions.
The work program is expected to include:
Design, construct, and commission a dense-phase CO₂ flow-loop test facility
- Develop a test loop capable of operating over representative pipeline pressure, temperature, and flow conditions.
- Incorporate configurable pipeline features such as low spots, branches, and weld geometries.
- Commission and validate the facility to support the planned testing program.
Evaluate liquid dropout behaviour in dense-phase CO₂ systems
- Test the effects of water and key impurities (H₂O, NOₓ, SOₓ, CO, and O₂).
- Identify operating conditions that lead to liquid or acid dropout.
- Determine the location, extent, and rate of liquid accumulation within representative pipeline geometries.
Assess liquid transport, deposition, and re-entrainment
- Determine whether precipitated liquids form persistent deposits on pipe surfaces.
- Quantify the influence of flow conditions and pipeline features on liquid accumulation and transport.
- Identify flow conditions required to re-entrain deposited liquids and recover from upset conditions.
Deliver test results and operating recommendations
- Characterize the relationships between impurities, operating conditions, and liquid dropout behaviour.
- Define operating envelopes that minimize liquid accumulation risks.
- Provide a final report documenting test methods, results, conclusions, and recommendations.
Project Governance
Project participants will be represented through a Project Steering Committee that will help guide the project scope, review progress and provide input on testing priorities throughout the program.
This collaborative approach will help ensure the project remains focused on industry needs while allowing participants to influence the development of new technical knowledge and testing capabilities. Participants will also have opportunities to review interim findings and provide feedback on future testing activities.
Participation
This Joint Industry Project is being developed for organizations involved in CO₂ transportation, carbon capture and storage, pipeline integrity and related technologies.
Potential participants may include:
- Pipeline operators
- Carbon capture and storage project developers
- Coating and materials technology providers
- Engineering and consulting organizations
- Research institutions and industry experts
By participating in the JIP, organizations can collaborate with industry peers, help shape the project scope through the Project Steering Committee, and gain access to data and insights that would be difficult or costly to generate independently.
The project is intended to provide a forum for sharing knowledge, addressing common challenges and advancing industry understanding of impurity-induced liquid drop-out and corrosion behaviour in CO₂ transportation systems.
Participants will Receive
Participants will help shape the project scope through the Project Steering Committee and gain access to project results relevant to their applications. Deliverables are expected to include:
- Test data and analysis results
- Understanding of liquid drop-out behaviour under flowing conditions
- Insights into impurity interactions and operating limits
- Information to support integrity management decisions
- Knowledge that can inform future CO₂ pipeline design and operation
Contributor
Kelly Piers, MSc, PEng.
Principal Engineer, Business Development & Strategic Initiatives
Kelly Piers is a Principal Engineer at C FER Technologies. In this position, Kelly works on strategic and business planning for C-FER and focuses on identifying, developing and implementing C-FER’s strategic diversification objectives, working with a number of industry associations in Alberta and across Canada.
