Hardware and instrumentation to investigate massive releases of dense phase CO2. (24th December 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jamois, Didier; Proust, Christophe; Hebrard, Jérome
• Is Part Of: Canadian journal of chemical engineering. Volume 93:Number 2(2015)
• Page Start: 234
• Page End: 240
• Publication Date: 2014-12-24
• Subjects: Chemical engineering -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals; 660.05
• DOI: 10.1002/cjce.22120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0008-4034

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <sec id="cjce22120-sec-0001" sec-type="section"> <p>CCS (carbon capture and storage) is seen as a possibility to mitigate the global warming effect. The practical implementation of this technique faces a few challenges like safety issues. It is wondered if a massive release affecting the pipeline (may be the most vulnerable part of the CCS chain) would not lead to a disaster remembering what happened in Africa about 28 years ago (about Nyos Lake accident see Eos, 2009). Few experimental observations of large‐scale CO<sub>2</sub> releases have been made, and the physics and thermochemistry involved are not fully understood, even if considerable progress has been made theoretically.<sup>2</sup> In this paper, the experimental techniques used to investigate this specific problem are described and illustrated with some key results extracted from various projects. Innovative techniques were employed to control the mass flowrate, blowdown, nearfield, and farfield dispersion in the atmosphere. A 2 m<sup>3</sup> spherical vessel able to store up to 1000 kg of CO<sub>2</sub> at a pressure above 8 MPa was used. Dense CO<sub>2</sub> was allowed to spill out via a 50 mm pipe. The temperature, CO<sub>2</sub> concentration, and density field of the outside cloud were monitored using thermocouples and concentration probes. Among other results, it was in particular shown that when the mass flowrate is large enough, body forces become significant forcing the cloud to stay on the ground.</p> </sec> </abstract>