Reducing the risk level for pipelines transporting carbon dioxide and hydrogen by means of optimal safety valves spacing

•The comparative analyses of the risks of pipeline transport of H.•The range of hazard zones around the pipelines transporting H2 and CO2 are shown.•The possibilities of risk reducing by means of safety valves spacing are presented.

In many countries where electricity generation is based on their natural resources of fossil fuels a need arises to implement new power engineering technologies that allow carbon dioxide capture. Simultaneously, efforts are made to find new energy carriers which, if fired, do not involve carbon dioxide emissions. Hydrogen is one of such fuels with this future potential which is now becoming increasingly popular. Obviously, this means that the two gases mentioned above – carbon dioxide and hydrogen – will be produced in large quantities in future, which in many cases will necessitate their transport over considerable distances. If a pipeline failure occurs, the transport of the gases may pose a serious hazard to people in the immediate vicinity of the leakage site. This paper presents an analysis of the possibility of reducing the level of risk related to pipelines transporting CO2 and H2 by means of safety valves. It is shown that for a 50 km long and a 0.4 m diameter pipeline transporting gas with the pressure of 15 MPa the individual risk level can be reduced from 1·10−4 to 6.5·10−7 for CO2 and from 1·10−6 to 6·10−10 for H2. The social risk can be diminished in similar proportions.