Tiny Amounts of Water in CO2 Pipelines Could Cause Catastrophic Release of Asphyxiating Gas
On April 3rd 2024, a carbon dioxide pipeline ruptured at the Lake Charles Pump Station in southwest Louisiana. Over the next two hours, a plume of dense white vapour spread across the surrounding rural area. Local road blocks were put in place by emergency services, but thankfully no human casualties were reported. The release was relatively small at 300 tonnes, compared to a more serious 6,000 tonnes leak in Missouri in 2020, and windy conditions stopped the cloud falling to the ground. In areas with any human or animal habitation, large sudden releases are potentially fatal since heavier-than-air CO2 can drop like a stone, drive out oxygen and asphyxiate anyone beneath. One line of enquiry, common when such incidents occur, was that the rupture was caused by the formation of carbonic acid. This is a major problem in CO2 pipelines since the acid can form with trace amounts of water – as little as 100 parts per million. Just one further hazard to consider as the hard-Left Miliband lunatics press ahead with billion-pound plans to run hundreds of miles of near-surface, large-diameter pipes around the north of England to bury CO2 in quantities that will have no measurable effect on any change in the climate.
But of course that is not really the point. Around £22 billion is planned to be spent in the UK on the potentially dangerous attempt to capture CO2 and bury it in likely compromised former gas fields under the sea. Like equally useless wind power, the subsidy-spraying will ensure plenty of returns for state-coddled profiteers, while wealth-destroying, joke green jobs can be claimed to be created.
On Monday, the Daily Sceptic reported on plans to build a 120-mile pipeline from cement and lime works in Staffordshire to Morecombe Bay via Cheshire and the Wirral. The pipe, known as Peak Cluster, will run close to a number of towns and villages including Macclesfield, Ellesmere Port and Willaston. In the North-East, it is planned to run a near 60-mile Humber pipeline through a number of urban or semi-urban areas including Goole, Howden, Scunthorpe, Barton-upon-Humber, Brigg, Immingham, South Killingholme and Hedon. The pipe will cross the estuary and run close to Hull’s eastern and southern fringes and associated industrial zones.
Carbon capture is not a new technology and the Americans have a great deal of experience in running it since CO2 is often injected into wells to enhance the removal of oil and gas deposits. Moving CO2 around in large pipes needs handling with great care, and the overall safety record does not inspire complete confidence. According to the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) database to 2021, corrosion, including both internal and external, arising from carbonic acid formation was one of the main causes of onshore CO2 incidents. Corrosion due to the carbonic acid accounted for a notable proportion of CO2 accidents, with material failure and weld issues being other leading causes.
In the oil and gas business, CO2 corrosion is known as ‘sweet corrosion’. Water at levels down to 50 parts per million is difficult to remove, particularly over a long pipe with numerous entry points. Over time, the dilute carbonic acid can lead to thinning of the pipe wall, pitting or severe local attack. Stainless steel is a safer material to use, but the cost is seen as prohibitive. Even controlling water within the pipe might not be enough since there could also be a problem with surface moisture entering micro cracks in defective or ageing welds.
Welds have been identified as a significant weak spot in CO2 pipeline construction. Data have shown corrosion pits clustering near welds when water is present. Welding along the Peak Cluster pipeline is likely to be done mostly on site in an open trench using common circumferential girth welds. In total, nearby residents need to hope that around 15,000 welds are made to the highest standards.
It is often noted that natural gas is transported in pipes to almost every home in the country, so why worry about moving CO2 around, particularly, as some claim, it will save the planet. But natural gas is a vital resource that creates wealth, powers a modern economy and stops the population from freezing in winter. Moving CO2 around does none of these things, and it does not save the planet. It is a monstrous exercise in virtue-signalling and, if plans for its expansion across northern England go ahead, it presents an unnecessary danger to local inhabitants for years to come. If you don’t believe your correspondent on this, try building a three-foot diameter CO2 pipe through Islington.
Saving the planet is a truly laughable claim. The Peak Cluster will remove 0.00008% of annual global CO2 emissions from what is described as the world’s largest cement decarbonisation initiative. If you think you can measure the effect this will have on global warming, there is probably a statistical post waiting for you in a British university specialising in Covid alarms and weather attribution guesses. Meanwhile, the finances behind carbon capture are pure Florida swampland territory. Assume that the Peak Cluster pipeline costs £500 million and allow a similar additional amount for its share of the £4 billion Morecombe Bay final processing and dumping site. Using these figures, consult Grok’s back-of-an envelope facility to calculate the annual cost of removing all global annual CO2. Ignore a trillion or so error either way, but it seem that following the UK’s lead in this world-beating green technology would cost around 14 times the GDP of the entire world.
Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor. Follow him on X.
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CO2 in water forms carbonic acid – not carbolic acid (also known as phenol).
Thought so from my 60+yr old ‘O’ level days. Rainwater falls as dilute carbonic acid. H2CO3.
Carbonic acid is so remarkably destructive because it is so common. Water gets everywhere and so does CO2.
Ah, Malham Cove. Clints and grikes. Gordale Scar. Over the top to Arncliffe. Beautiful. I love my Yorkshire wildernesses. Living in France, it’s one of the few things I miss ❤️
Re the last but one para: as you noted above, carbon dioxide is dense enough to settle on the ground (albeit only just, and dependant on humidity etc), whereas methane is the other way round, with the occasional gas leak behind relatively harmless most of the time away from a source of ignition. Normally, accompanying compounds, like mercaptan, are used to detect such things, either using man made instruments, or trained dogs.
When my bit of the UK changed over from town gas (gas made by roasting coal) to natural gas (piped from the North Sea), there were problems in that the natural gas didn’t have enough smell, so gas leaks in homes went undetected with all the associated explosion and fire risks. The fix was to add smelly stuff (mercaptan) to the gas.
In addition to the lack of smell problem, ‘pilot’ lights that were supposed to remain lit all the time and provide a source of ignition when needed became less reliable and often went out leaving a slow leak of gas.
OK so I realise our Political Class want to PRETEND to save the planet, but there is no need to PRETEND to this level of absurdity. They have their carbon wealth taxes that pretend to be about the climate, they have their thousands of turbines, and solar panels to lower our standard of living and price us out of using electricity, they have their smart meters to ration energy use, they have their shutting down of the North Sea. They have gotten rid of coal and want rid of gas, what f…king more do they want from us? ——Cut out with this burying CO2 in the ground you morons, it was NEVER about CO2 in the first place you half wits.
i suppose we need the carbon capture technology because the countryside is being covered in solar panels. Otherwise we could just plant trees…
Nah, that’d never work. We can’t plant trees all over the place. We need the land for growing crops to feed ourselves.
Oh… wait.
My local council’s plans to tackle the climate crisis included the promise to plant 10000 trees, at the same time as building 33000 houses and countless sheds per the Local Plan. Pointing out that 10000 trees would cover the emissions of half a 3-bed semi was too inconvenient to respond to. Pointless virtue signalling, pursued because money’s thrown at them by national government.
While an individual tree stores more carbon, actually a grassland is better at storing and retaining, because the bulk is below ground in the grass root system. This is less prone to release if fires occur and has the added benefit of being able to rear livestock, with minimal carbon release, which a tree cannot.
Spot on! Grasslands also produce much more OXYGEN than trees, because trees resorb all the oxygen they emit during the day back into themselves at night. Trees are NOT the “Green Lungs of the Planet”. Grasslands on land, and Algae in the sea, are the great Oxygen Producers.
Trees solve both of the alleged problems. They suck in huge quantities of CO2 and half of a trees weight is WATER, which would help with the alleged sea level rise. But no, all they harp in about is more tax, more regulation and more control….NEVER about more TREES.
So it isn’t really about CO2 is it? —CO2 is simply the excuse for public policy.
But trees EMIT by night most of the Carbon Dioxide they have absorbed during the day…
Lake Nyos disaster, massive release of carbon dioxide from Lake Nyos in Cameroon on August 21, 1986. The disaster killed between 1,700 and 1,800 people.
Edit: I should have placed this as a comment to JohnK’s comment above concerning the density of CO2
“… it presents an unnecessary danger to local inhabitants for years to come”: one of its objectives, perhaps?
Exactly. Every little bit helps the Globalist Depopulation Agenda.
I also wonder what effect such Carbon Dioxide releases have on all the wildlife, because it seems to me that all the birds, bees & butterflies, crickets & grasshoppers, ladybirds, earthworms, frogs, toads, newts & slowworms would be asphyxiated along with the humans and mammals, such as hedgehogs, field mice, rabbits, dormice, shrews, water voles, and livestock.
All you need to know
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Nyos#1986_disaster
Although a sudden outgassing of CO2 had occurred at Lake Monoun in 1984, a similar threat from Lake Nyos was not anticipated. However, on August 21, 1986, a limnic eruption occurred at Lake Nyos, triggering the sudden release of about 100,000–300,000 tons[11] (some sources state as much as 1.6 million tonnes)[12] of CO2. This gas cloud rose at nearly 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) and[6] spilled over the northern lip of the lake into a valley running roughly east–west from Cha to Subum. It then rushed down two valleys branching off to the north, displacing all of the air and suffocating 1,746 people within 25 kilometres (16 mi) of the lake, mostly rural villagers, as well as 3,500 livestock. The villages most affected were Cha, Nyos, and Subum.
CO2 is used as a barrier in wine vats. People who fall into such vats tend to die of suffocation.
“The 1986 Lake Nyos disaster in Cameroon serves as a stark reminder of the lethal nature of CO2 when released in large quantities. A natural release of CO2 from the lake resulted in the deaths of approximately 1,700 people and countless animals. While this was a natural occurrence, it underscores the potential consequences of a major CO2 pipeline rupture.”
“In 2020, a CO2 pipeline operated by Denbury in Mississippi ruptured, leading to the hospitalization of 45 people and the evacuation of nearby residents. This incident highlighted the real-world risks associated with CO2 transportation and the need for improved safety measures.”
The Silent Threat: CO2 Pipelines and Lessons from Natural Disasters – Environment+Energy Leader
Moisture in gases is well known fact. Medical gas cylinder must be checked regularly for rust inside.
This is deranged. Completely unrealistic & utterly mad. As John McEnroe once said “you cannot be serious”.
Please can someone tell me this is a joke?
Mentally deranged messes like this are a prime example how our education system has been dumbed down by communists and retards. We no longer have enough deep thinkers, with the technical and scientific knowledge, in government, the civil service and sometimes industry, to tell straight away that something is daft.
We are heading for several dangers to our prosperity and safety: net zero psychosis, Muhammadan takeover, political fragmentation, economic collapse, deindistrialisation, energy supply and reliability collapse and defence weakness. Britain is in a very bad place.
Civil war will come.
Most of the natural gas pipeline network is now in plastic (uPPC?) and doesn’t have to cope with high pressure, sub zero temperature of CO2.
They’re mucking about with Mother Nature…and Mother knows best.