Safety risk assessment of the large-scale carbon capture, utilization, and storage demonstration project in Dongying, China

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) is a crucial strategy for meeting carbon neutrality goals. When taking into account the supply chain of CCUS, potential environmental and safety risks cannot be ignored. This study develops a systematic framework which combines process modeling and accident risk assessment for a regional CCUS supply chain from carbon emission source to carbon sink. A systematic framework is proposed using a process simulation with Aspen Plus. In addition, a comprehensive inherent safety index (ISI) system is proposed using data from process simulations to evaluate CCUS risk performance. For a given spatial and seasonal distribution of CCUS supply chain deployment, a map of quantitative risk characteristics is investigated. The components ranked in order of descending accident risk severity are carbon emission source, chemical utilization, capture, transportation, and biological/geological module. The accident risk severity is highest in winter. In addition, the impact range of regional CCUS accidents was also simulated. This study provides a method to assess CCUS systems from a system perspective and explores the safety risks of regional CCUS systems on spatial and temporal scales.