UKCCSRC Conference 2026 – Plenary 2: CO2 Transportation (ECR Meeting Fund)

Saleh Alfaleh (University of Edinburgh), Maryam Nasiri Ghrir (University of Lancashire) and Muhammad Shahbaz (Net Zero Industry Innovation Centre, Teesside University) share their key takeaways from the “Plenary 2: CO2 Transportation” session at the UKCCSRC Conference 2026.

As researchers in carbon capture and related technologies, one of the purposes of conferences like this one, is to understand the government, policy, industrial and scientific issues and development for the transportation of carbon after its capture and removal processes, and link these to current research on novel technologies and processes. Hence, the session on the first day of the conference “CO2 Transportation” was chaired by Richard Marsh (Cardiff University) and Ben Wetenhall (Newcastle University), with talks delivered by James Watt (WSP), Ben Kek (NEP) and Jacqueline Penn-Morley (ROSEN UK).

James Watt opened his talk by puncturing the assumption that moving CO₂ through pipelines is not new at all. The Canyon Reef Carriers pipeline in Texas was built in 1972, carrying 5.2 million tonnes of CO₂ a year across 225 kilometres. Larger systems soon joined it: Cortez stretched 808 km and moved 19.3 Mt/yr, Sheep Mountain ran 660 km at 9.5 Mt/yr, Bravo covered 350 km at 7.3 Mt/yr, and Weyburn later added 328 km at 5 Mt/yr.

Clusters has become a hot topic again. The UK’s first two funding rounds didn’t really consider clusters; current funding does, looking deliberately at multiple sites linked together. Regulation and standards have been catching up in parallel. BS PD 8010 has been updated, the Pipeline Safety Regulations have been amended to formally name CO₂ as a dangerous fluid, the Energy Institute’s guidance has been republished, the API has issued RP 1192 covering CO₂ transport by pipeline, and ISO continues to update its suite of CCS standards. The evidence base was developed through projects such as CASSEM, Pipetrans, Mattrans and CoolTrans and work on the Social Licence to Operate and ZEP’s early RCI studies. Watt observed improvements in water solubility, equation-of-state behaviour and flow metering, but said the problem has become more complex and expensive. Our tools have gotten more advanced, RunPilot, gCCS/gProms, Continuum, Goldset, InfraCCS, SimCCS and Olsights; but industrial decarbonisation has been slow. Watt left us with a question: did we become more risk-averse, more policy-led, or just doubt it could be done?

Watt grouped the road ahead into a few themes. On compositions, the open questions are what impurity projects will actually accept, how those mixtures behave in practice, which equations of state we can trust, where the empirical data is, and what it all means for corrosion and integrity. Dense phase versus gas, there is a real capacity question: can we run dense-phase pipelines onshore in the UK, not just offshore and can dispersion models be properly verified against field data? Then there are cluster and pipeline dynamics. Designing a cluster is not just a matter of flow, pressure or even surge analysis; it is about how the whole system behaves over time, and about the commercial agreements, business models, operating models and third-party access rules. Composition limits, routing and location all feed into the same puzzle. Non-pipeline transport (shipping, road and rail) and how those modes integrate into clusters, what they do to flexibility and steady flows, and where access points and buffer storage should sit.

Challenges for cluster and pipeline dynamics

Ben Kek from bp presented an update on the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) and its Teesside Carbon Capture Pipeline. NEP is developing the infrastructure to transport CO₂ from industrial carbon capture projects across Teesside to a compression facility, and then out via a 145-kilometre offshore pipeline to the Endurance carbon store beneath the North Sea. The Humber region was identified as the priority target due to its concentration of very large industrial emitters, while Teesside – the most compact cluster – serves as the practical first phase, with all learning to be carried forward to the Humber.

Phase 1 is currently approximately 25% complete, on track for a late 2028 start-up. The pipeline is designed to transport 10 million tonnes of CO₂ per year initially, with future capacity projected to reach 40 to 50 million tonnes per year. Storage is not a concern; NEP holds six stores across five licences, with the Endurance store alone capable of holding 150 million tonnes, representing 45 years of storage at current injection rates. Construction has presented real challenges, including unexploded World War ordnance found both onshore at the former Redcar steelworks site and offshore in the southern North Sea, as well as the need for tunnel boring to protect a nearby protected coastal site. Despite this, the project has achieved over 50% local content, with more than £2 billion awarded to UK subcontractors, including Liberty Steel, which manufactured all the pipeline steel. The project is majority financed by approximately 23 global banks, a first for carbon capture and storage. With Teesside as the blueprint, the Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline is the clear next step, applying the same model at a larger scale.

NEP Phase 1 progress report in Teesside

The third talk of the session was delivered by Dr Jacqueline Penn-Morley of ROSEN UK, who presented her research on corrosion in pipelines used for CO₂ transport, a growing concern in carbon capture and storage infrastructure. She provided a detailed overview of the primary causes of corrosion, highlighting the roles of impurities such as SO₂, NOₓ, H₂S, and O₂ in accelerating degradation. Penn-Morley shared specific findings from experimental work conducted at the Institute for Energy Technology, where tests were performed on gaseous CO₂ containing 40 ppm H₂O, varying concentrations of SO₂, and 20 ppm O₂. Notably, liquid drop formation was observed when NO₂ levels were increased from 5 ppm to 8 ppm across different pipeline conditions. She also addressed environmentally assisted cracking (EAC), outlining the critical interplay between susceptible materials, corrosive environments, and tensile stress. While CO₂ itself is not typically aggressive, the presence of co-contaminants significantly heightens risk. Despite these challenges, she proposed several mitigation strategies, including maintaining lower hydrogen partial pressures and ensuring that fracture arrest pressures are set above ductile fracture thresholds to prevent running fractures. To support safe and reliable CO₂ transport, she introduced the use of in-line inspection (ILI) tools, which she presented as a viable solution for assessing pipeline suitability and managing corrosion risks effectively.