Mocellin P., Vianello C., Maschio G., 2019, Hazard analysis of Carbon Sequestration pipelines. The effect of impurities and insulation specs on the release evolution, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 77, 331-336.
Many emerging risks are related to strategic infrastructures carrying CO2 for sequestration purposes (CCS and EOR projects). Among these, a pressurized release induced by a rupture is by far the most common hazard scenario that may lead to serious consequences. A comprehensive source modelling approach should also include the description of effects related to impurities that are commonly included and accepted in captured CO2 streams. This work suggests a method to assess the influence of impurities with respect to a flow of pure CO2 and shows that an increasing impurities content alters both the phase change mechanisms and the temperature dynamics inside the pipeline. This effect is very sensitive to the pipeline length subjected to a release and the orifice size. A detailed analysis of the influence of insulation in the release dynamics shows instead a negligible contribution to the thermal dynamics mainly due to the irrelevant role played by conductive mechanisms with respect to convective and latent-related thermal processes.
