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Accelerated Fluid Dynamics of CO2 dense gas dispersion in complex terrain

Academic lead
Dr Amirul Khan, School of Civil Engineering, a.khan@leeds.ac.uk
Industrial lead
Dr Simon Gant, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), simon.gant@hse.gov.uk
Co-supervisor(s)
Dr Andrew Ross, School of Earth and Environment, A.N.Ross@leeds.ac.uk, Dr Rory Hetherington, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), rory.hetherington@hse.gov.uk (External)
Project themes
Clean Energy, Computational & Analytical Tools, Data-driven methods, Multiphysics & Complex Fluids

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is recognised as a crucial element in reaching the target of Net Zero. To support this, an infrastructure of pipelines are required to transport liquid CO2. However, safe operation of pipelines relies on accurately predicting the consequences of a leak or rupture (e.g. 2020 Satartia pipeline release in Mississippi). Key factors in modelling pipeline releases, especially when a risk assessment is undertaken along the full length, include (i) the computational cost of a model and (ii) its capacity to account for complex terrain.  

This project will study the dispersion of large-scale releases of CO2 in complex terrain. This will be achieved by combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD), such as Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) with methods in machine learning. Any computational tool developed will need to be fast-running in order to simulate the full range of release scenarios. Successful development of a model could have far reaching implications across the process safety industry.

Aerial view of the CO2 cloud in the COSHER project at DNV Spadeadam. Image from Ahmed et al., (2015)