Plan to convert natural gas pipeline to CO2 in Lincoln County raising concerns
By Chris Dunker, Lincoln Journal Star (July 24, 2022) – But those regulations are incomplete, according to the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit promoting pipeline safety, which said PHMSA has historically taken a “prescriptive minimum” approach to safety rules for carbon pipelines.
Most of the 5,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipeline in the U.S. transport the gas as a supercritical state fluid, which has properties of both a liquid and a gas and requires pipes that can handle higher pressures.
Operating pipelines under those conditions makes them more prone to fractures, but the Pipeline Safety Trust says current federal regulations “do not contain any detailed requirements that specifically identify how to address” those problems.
“This regulatory gap means that current federal pipeline safety regulations are clearly inadequate because CO2 pipeline companies could develop CO2 gas and liquid pipelines that fall outside of this narrow federal rule,” it added.
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