Comparing the effects of pipe diameter on flow capacity of CO2 pipeline

As carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered as one of the options for reducing atmospheric emissions of CO2 from human activities and the environment, there are needs to examine the role that a pipeline infrastructure for CCS could play in reducing the CO2 emissions, and the possible development of pathways for a CCS pipeline connecting the source with appropriate sink. In the cost estimation of the CO2 transport, the pipeline diameter plays an important role in optimizing the CO2 to enable the storage of several millions of tonnes of CO2 per year. This paper examines the modelling of a straight pipe segment carrying pure CO2 with impurities and evaluate the effects of different pipe diameter on flow capacity using a pipeline hydraulic simulator. PIPESYS is an integrated flow simulator that allows the modelling of a single and multiphase static and dynamic flow for pipeline hydraulics. This is done by maintaining the inlet parameters (Pressure, Temperature, and mass flow rate) and a pressure drop at a range of length. The process includes using the Peng Robinson (PR) Equation of State and the Beggs and Brills-Moody pressure drop correlation to calculate the PVT behaviour and flow regime respectively. Also, artificial neural networks(ANN) using MATLAB was employed to train and verified the data obtained. The results shows that the models can be used effectively to determine and predict the effects of pipe diameter to flow capacity of CO2 pipelines.