Gasunie, EBN and DNV launch CO2RE programme to pin down CO₂ impurity chemistry in transport

Gasunie and Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) have launched CO2RE (CO₂ Reaction Experimentation), a two-year research programme with DNV as research contractor, to study how impurities in captured CO₂ behave under pipeline transport conditions.

Announced July 2, the programme will run controlled experiments in both gaseous and dense-phase CO₂, varying impurity ratios, pressure, and temperature to identify which reactions occur and to quantify their rates. Early results will guide potential follow-on work, including testing under flow conditions and development of optical in-situ measurement techniques for real-time composition monitoring at high pressure. The stated aim is to support safe and cost-effective CO₂ pipeline networks for carbon capture and storage in the Netherlands and across Europe — Gasunie is developing the Dutch national CO₂ transport network, while EBN oversees development of long-term CO₂ storage.

Why this matters for CCS hazard studies

Anyone who has sat through a HAZOP on a CO₂ transport or injection system knows the awkward moment when the team reaches composition deviations. Captured CO₂ is never pure: depending on the capture route, the stream can carry water, oxygen, NOx, SOx, hydrogen sulfide, amines, and more. These impurities react with each other in ways that are only partially characterised — cross-chemistry that can form nitric and sulfuric acids in the dense phase, drive corrosion well beyond what dry-CO₂ assumptions predict, and shift phase behaviour in ways that matter for fracture control and depressurisation analysis.

The practical consequence today is that PHA teams and pipeline designers work from sparse experimental data and manage the uncertainty with conservative entry specifications. Those specs, in turn, become the safeguards that hazard studies credit — and challenging or validating them is difficult when the underlying reaction kinetics are poorly quantified.

A public, systematic evidence base on impurity reaction behaviour directly upgrades the quality of scenario development for CCS projects: better-grounded composition-deviation consequences, more defensible corrosion allowances, and eventually — if the in-situ monitoring work matures — real-time composition assurance as a safeguard rather than a paper spec.

With multiple European CO₂ networks moving through design and permitting, results from this programme will be worth tracking for anyone facilitating hazard studies in the CCS chain.