Humber Carbon Pipeline Briefing

Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline Briefing

What is the Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline?

The Humber Carbon Capture Pipeline is a project proposed by the Northern Endurance Partnership (NEP) - made up of its shareholders bp, Equinor and TotalEnergies. It sits as part of the East Coast Cluster, and plans to run from Drax Power Station to the North Sea. The NEP and their partners, such as Drax, claim capturing carbon and transporting it to be stored underground is essential for decarbonisation. However, carbon capture at Drax means unnecessarily prolonging the life of dirty energy, and the pipeline itself holds many risks to the local communities.

The pipeline would have carbon dioxide ‘fed in’ from sites along the pipeline starting with Drax, including Keadby Gas Power Station, Lindsey Oil Refinery and Saltend Chemicals Park and run this carbon dioxide out to the North Sea to be stored underground. The NEP claims the pipeline would be able to accommodate any connections chosen by DESNZ for carbon capture. The carbon dioxide will be transported in a supercritical phase, a fluid state where it’s heated and pressurised.

What are the risks of the pipeline?

Transporting carbon dioxide by pipeline poses serious public safety risks due to the fact that CO2 is odourless, colourless, heavier than air and is an asphyxiant and intoxicant.

Carbon dioxide is both odourless and colourless, making leaks hard to detect. Unlike hydrocarbons, it doesn’t ignite or disperse quickly and can travel far, settling in low-lying areas—common throughout the Humber region.

CO₂ is an asphyxiant that displaces oxygen, endangering people, animals, and even stopping engines. At 10,000 ppm it causes drowsiness; at 15,000 ppm, heavier breathing; at 30,000 ppm, rising heart rate and blood pressure. At 40,000 ppm, it becomes immediately dangerous, risking brain damage, coma, or death.

When a supercritical CO2 pipeline ruptures, the high-pressure CO2 rapidly decompresses into a dense, cold vapor cloud that hugs the ground. The release can trigger a ductile fracture (“unzipping”) of the pipeline, letting large amounts of CO2 escape before it can be shut off.

The rapid expansion leads to a sharp drop in temperature at the rupture point, potentially cooling the gas to as low as −80 °C, which can form dry ice and create a cold vapour cloud capable of causing frostbite or lung damage upon inhalation.

Impurities like water and hydrogen sulphide can make CO2 more corrosive, weakening pipelines and increasing failure risk. When CO2 comes from multiple industrial sources, its composition varies, introducing more impurities and inconsistent flow rates and pressure cycles. For the Humber Carbon Pipeline, combining CO2 from many sources adds corrosion risk and raises the likelihood of leaks or ruptures.

A recent study shows CO2 pipelines are more prone to small, hard-to-detect ruptures than oil and gas lines, allowing leaks to continue longer. Even low-level, prolonged CO2 exposure can harm health. A US site reports that since 2010 there had been one “incident” (eg a release of gas) for every 73.5 miles of CO2 pipeline, compared with one for every 405.4 miles for all pipelines combined. Since parts of the Humber Carbon Pipeline run near populated areas, including primary schools, undetected leaks could pose serious long-term risks to nearby residents.

Flood risks and Ecology

The pipeline route lies in a high flood-risk area, crossing arable land, waterways, grassland, woodland, and the Humber Estuary—places vulnerable to sea-level rise. Much of the corridor could support priority habitats and protected species.

Heavy rainfall and flooding can trigger leaks, damage infrastructure, and overwhelm drainage systems, while high temperatures and drought increase ground movement and pipeline stress. These climate-related risks add to the safety and environmental concerns along the Humber Carbon Pipeline’s route.

The case of Satartia

In 2021, a CO₂ pipeline ruptured in Satartia, Mississippi, hospitalizing nearly 50 people and leaving residents disoriented or unconscious as stalled engines crippled emergency response. Around 21,873 barrels of liquid CO₂ expanded into 2 million m³ of gas, travelling 1.6 km—far beyond what models had predicted.

Health impacts have persisted: residents report memory loss, chronic fatigue, lung problems, and worsened COPD. One man still can’t recognize friends or keep a job. Heavy rains had shifted the ground before the rupture, yet while the NEP noted flood risks to workers, they ignored the far greater community risks of a pipeline leak.

Policy

CO₂ isn’t classified as a dangerous fluid under the PSR, so CO₂ pipelines aren’t treated as Major Accident Hazard Pipelines and aren’t covered by Land Use Planning controls. As the HSE notes, the UK has limited experience with CO₂ pipelines, and only some design codes address them. As a result, regulation mostly relies on rules meant for hydrocarbon pipelines, even though CO₂ pipelines are more complex.

Carbon capture is not a climate solution

Carbon capture in power generation has a long, costly record of failure. At Drax - the pipeline’s starting point - Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) remains unproven and distracts from reducing emissions at source. No scalable BECCS projects using woody biomass exist. Pursuing BECCS at Drax risks billions on untested, environmentally damaging technology. For more information please read this briefing.