Transportation

Where a suitable geologic formation for secure CO₂ storage does not underlie an industrial facility, captured CO₂ will need to be transported to a separate location for injection underground. Pipelines appear to be the only practical way to transport CO₂ at any substantial scale.

CO₂ pipelines are already in commercial use, with about 3500 miles of underground pipe in North America used to transport CO₂ from natural reservoirs to oil fields to enhance production. The largest network supplies Permian Basin operators in Texas and New Mexico; they have injected CO₂ for 35 years. Shorter piping runs are used in other locations by beverage and chemical manufacturing facilities. These pipelines and industrial piping runs have operated for years without significant safety incidents.

CO₂ pipeline technology is similar to that used for natural gas; accordingly, a robust construction, operation, and maintenance infrastructure is in place. And because of the Texas and Oklahoma enhanced oil recovery applications, many pipeline-related regulatory issues have been addressed.

WESTCARB will build on this foundation of knowledge in evaluating the routing options and costs for CO₂ pipelines to link industrial plants to geologic sequestration sites.