UCL professor leads 2.7m pipeline safety project

A professor from UCL Chemical Engineering is leading a ?2.7m project looking at the safety of transporting captured CO2 in high-pressure pipelines. Professor Haroun Mahgerefteh will lead the European Commission FP7-funded project, which will focus on the transport of CO2 from fossil fuel power plants for subsequent sub-sea storage. Given the hazards associated with the accidental release of large quantities of the gas, it is essential that such pipelines are located at safe distances from populated areas. Providing such information in an accurate and reliable manner is therefore essential to the success of carbon capture and sequestration technology as a viable means of combating the impact of global warming. The project ? entitled CO2PipeHaz ? is being carried out in collaboration with scientists and industrialists in Norway, France, Greece and the world's largest emitter of CO2, China. It will involve mathematical and computer simulations of high-pressure release and the subsequent atmospheric dispersion of CO2 in the event of an accidental pipeline rupture. An important part of the project involves comparing the predictions of mathematical models against data collected during the controlled rupture of an industrial-scale CO2 pipeline in China.