DNV to develop CO2 pipeline standards

Carbon capture and storage could take a step forward with an announcement today from Oslo, Norway-based Det Norske Veritas, which said it will lead a group of industry partners in developing a new standard for transportation of carbon dioxide in pipelines.

DNV, an independent foundation that offers certification, consulting, and risk management services to the transportation and petrochemical industries, said specific issues related to CO2 in a dense, high pressure phase are not covered by existing pipeline standards or regulations.

"The joint industry project is an important milestone for CCS and is absolutely timely since the industry really needs this recommended practice," said Frøydis Eldevik, project manager at DNV.

DNV's partners on the project are Norway's StatoilHydro (NYSE: STO), Gassnova and Gassco, London's BP (NYSE: BP), Netherlands' Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.A), Brazil's Petrobras, Sweden's Vattenfall, Denmark's Dong Energy, Luxembourg's ArcelorMittal (NYSE: MT), and Austria's ILF. The Technical Reference Group for the new standards includes government representatives from the U.K., the Netherlands and Norway. DNV said the European Commission is also supporting the initiative.

"Due to the features lacking in the current industry standards, this project's scope of work is related to issues like safety, fast propagating ductile fractures, fatigue crack growth, pipeline operation conditions, flow assurance, corrosion and material compatibility," said Eldevik.

Last month, Danbury, Conn.-based Praxair (NYSE: PX), a combustion technologies copmany, said it's Praxair Deutschland unit signed an agreement with Vattenfall for the joint development of a clean coal project in Germany (see Praxair, Vattenfall in clean coal agreement). The captured CO2 at a planned 500 megawatt plant is expected to be transported by pipeline to a sequestration site or enhanced oil recovery field.

DNV expects the new guidelines to be ready within 18 months.