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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2011

Industry and government perspectives on First Nations' participation in the British Columbia environmental assessment process

Research was conducted with West Moberly First Nations, Halfway First Nation and the Treaty 8 Tribal Association (located in northeastern British Columbia, Canada) on effective engagement in environmental assessment processes. As part of this research, we examined the perspectives of a subset of resource industry proponents and their consultants, as well as staff from the British Columbia Environmental Assessment Office on their experiences with the requirement to consult with Canada's indigenous peoples. Research into the perspectives of industry proponents and consultants is almost non-existent, yet industry and governments are key participants within environmental assessments. This research found that industry proponents were disenfranchised by the British Columbia environmental assessment process and its mechanisms for consulting with First Nations, and that they sought changes to that process. Their concerns and their implications are documented and some recommendations are offered for addressing those concerns. Understanding industry and government views on First Nations engagement could suggest not only potential improvements in EA processes that facilitate all parties but provide common grounds for mutually engaging to resolve challenges.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

The role of Health Impact Assessment in the setting of air quality standards: An Australian perspective

The approaches used for setting or reviewing air quality standards vary from country to country. The purpose of this research was to consider the potential to improve decision-making through integration of HIA into the processes to review and set air quality standards used in Australia. To assess the value of HIA in this policy process, its strengths and weaknesses were evaluated aligned with review of international processes for setting air quality standards. Air quality standard setting programmes elsewhere have either used HIA or have amalgamated and incorporated factors normally found within HIA frameworks. They clearly demonstrate the value of a formalised HIA process for setting air quality standards in Australia. The following elements should be taken into consideration when using HIA in standard setting. (a) The adequacy of a mainly technical approach in current standard setting procedures to consider social determinants of health. (b) The importance of risk assessment criteria and information within the HIA process. The assessment of risk should consider equity, the distribution of variations in air quality in different locations and the potential impacts on health. (c) The uncertainties in extrapolating evidence from one population to another or to subpopulations, especially the more vulnerable, due to differing environmental factors and population variables. (d) The significance of communication with all potential stakeholders on issues associated with the management of air quality. In Australia there is also an opportunity for HIA to be used in conjunction with the NEPM to develop local air quality standard measures. The outcomes of this research indicated that the use of HIA for air quality standard setting at the national and local levels would prove advantageous. -- Highlights: • Health Impact Assessment framework has been applied to a policy development process. • HIA process was evaluated for application in air quality standard setting. • Advantages of HIA in the air quality standard setting process are demonstrated.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2014

Comparative life cycle assessments: The case of paper and digital media

The consumption of the written word is changing, as media transitions from paper products to digital alternatives. We reviewed the life cycle assessment (LCA) research literature that compared the environmental footprint of digital and paper media. To validate the role of context in influencing LCA results, we assessed LCAs that did not compare paper and print, but focused on a product or component that is part of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector. Using a framework that identifies problems in LCA conduct, we assessed whether the comparative LCAs were accurate expressions of the environmental footprints of paper and print. We hypothesized that the differences between the product systems that produce paper and digital media weaken LCA's ability to compare environmental footprints. We also hypothesized that the characteristics of ICT as an industrial sector weaken LCA as an environmental assessment methodology. We found that existing comparative LCAs offered problematic comparisons of paper and digital media for two reasons — the stark material differences between ICT products and paper products, and the unique characteristics of the ICT sector. We suggested that the context of the ICT sector, best captured by the concept of “Moore's Law”, will continuously impede the ability of the LCA methodology to measure ICT products. -- Highlights: • We review the LCA research that compares paper and digital media. • We contrast the comparative LCAs with LCAs that examine only digital products. • Stark differences between paper and digital media weakens LCA findings. • Digital products in general challenge the LCA method's reliability. • Continuous innovation and global nature of digital products impedes LCA methodology.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2016

Review and environmental impact assessment of green technologies for base courses in bituminous pavements

This paper provides a critical review of different approaches applied in the Belgian asphalt sector in order to reduce the environmental impact of bituminous road construction works. The focus is on (1) reusing reclaimed asphalt pavement, (2) reducing the asphalt production temperature, and (3) prolonging the service life of the pavement. Environmental impact assessment of these methods is necessary to be able to compare these approaches and understand better the ability to reduce the environmental impact during the life cycle of the road pavement. Attention should be drawn to the possible shift in environmental impact between various life cycle stages, e.g., raw material production, asphalt production, or waste treatment. Life cycle assessment is necessary to adequately assess the environmental impact of these approaches over the entire service life of the bituminous pavement. The three approaches and their implementation in the road sector in Flanders (region in Belgium) are described and the main findings from life cycle assessment studies on these subjects are discussed. It was found from the review that using reclaimed asphalt pavement in new bituminous mixtures might yield significant environmental gains. The environmental impact of the application of warm mix asphalt technologies, on the other hand, depends on the technique used. - Highlights: • Recycling, lower production temperature and durability of asphalt are investigated. • The use of RAP in new asphalt mixtures yields significant environmental advantages. • It would be beneficial to allow RAP in asphalt mixtures for wearing courses. • The use of particular additives might counteract the environmental gain from WMA. • The service life and the environmental data source influence the LCA results.

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Threatened southern African soils: A need for appropriate ecotoxicological risk assessment

In southern Africa arable soils are limited due to low rainfall and are threatened by anthropogenic activities like agriculture and mining making it susceptible to degradation. The aim of this study is to review the existing information available with regards to soil contamination and its possible threats towards biodiversity and quality of southern African soils. Some of the issues being addressed in this paper include the focus areas of ecotoxicological research in southern African countries, levels of contaminants in soils, the impacts of climate on soil animals and the representativity of standardised test species. In order to address this, we report on a literature search, which was done to determine the main focus areas of soil ecotoxicological research, highlighting strengths and research needs in comparison to approaches elsewhere in the world. Further, to address if the risk assessment approaches of Europe and the USA are valid for southern African environmental conditions; this in the light of differences in temperature, rainfall and fauna. It is concluded that risk assessment procedures for Europe and the USA were based on non-southern African conditions making it necessary to rethink risk assessment studies; although limited, in southern Africa. We recommend future research that has to be undertaken to address these issues. This research should include investigating species sensitivities in responses to contamination and including insects likes ants and termites in ecological risk assessment studies.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Social life cycle assessment of concrete bridge decks exposed to aggressive environments

Highlights: • Social Life Cycle Assessment of different design strategies for bridge decks in marine environments. • 15 design alternatives were studied and compared according to the Guidelines methodology. • Less maintenance results in better social performance. • Impacts during maintenance phase are main contributors to social performance. • Stainless steel and the addition of silica fume are socially preferable to conventional designs. - Abstract: Sustainable design of structures includes environmental and economic aspects; social aspects throughout the life cycle of the structure, however, are not always adequately assessed. This study evaluates the social contribution of a concrete bridge deck. The social performance of the different design alternatives is estimated taking into account the impacts derived from both the construction and the maintenance phases of the infrastructure under conditions of uncertainty. Uncertain inputs related to social context are treated through Beta-PERT distributions. Maintenance needs for the different materials are estimated by means of a reliability based durability evaluation. Results show that social impacts resulting from the service life of bridges are not to be neglected in sustainability assessments of such structures. Designs that minimize maintenance operations throughout the service life, such as using stainless steel rebars or silica fume containing concretes, are socially preferable to conventional designs. The results can complement economic and environmental sustainability assessments of bridge structures.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2018

Life cycle impact assessment of artisanal sandstone mining on the environment and health of mine workers

Highlights: • Life cycle assessment (LCA) of artisanal sandstone mining in South Africa • Impact assessment of sandstone mining activities on environment and health • Fossil fuel and coal generated electricity are major non-renewable energy sources • Diesel fuel combustion during transportation phase contributed to major emissions • Silicosis and musculoskeletal problems are most common health issues - Abstract: Artisanal and small scale mining (ASM) is considered as a means to support and improve the quality of rural life, and is often the only activity that local communities have to sustain themselves. It is important to understand the nature of ASM and associated environmental effects in order to make informed decisions on the management, licensing and policy formulation of the ASM sector. Compared to other mined commodities such as, gold or diamond, the studies focusing on environmental and health impacts of sandstone mining are limited. This study used life cycle assessment (LCA) tool to evaluate the overall impact of artisanal sandstone mining (ASAM) on the environment and human health. The impact categories assessed in the study included: resource depletion, global warming, ozone layer depletion and acidification. It was observed that the impact of ASAM on the environment was minimal, however the high physical demand of the work negatively affected the health of the miners. The most common health related issues with the miners was observed to be silicosis and musculoskeletal problems. Fossil fuel used during transportation was observed to be the highest contributor for most of the impact categories.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2013

Model Evaluation and Hindcasting: An Experiment with an Integrated Assessment Model

Integrated assessment models have been extensively used for analyzing long term energy and greenhouse emissions trajectories and have influenced key policies on this subject. Though admittedly these models are focused on the long term trajectories, how well these models are able to capture historical dynamics is an open question. In a first experiment of its kind, we present a framework for evaluation of such integrated assessment models. We use Global Change Assessment Model for this zero order experiment, and focus on the building sector results for USA. We calibrate the model for 1990 and run it forward up to 2095 in five year time steps. This gives us results for 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 which we compare to observed historical data at both fuel level and service level. We focus on bringing out the key insights for the wider process of model evaluation through our experiment with GCAM. We begin with highlighting that creation of an evaluation dataset and identification of key evaluation metric is the foremost challenge in the evaluation process. Our analysis highlights that estimation of functional form of the relationship between energy service demand, which is an unobserved variable, and its drivers is a significant challenge in the absence of adequate historical data for both the dependent and driver variables. Historical data availability for key metrics is a serious limiting factor in the process of evaluation. Interestingly, service level data against which such models need to be evaluated are itself a result of models. Thus for energy services, the best we can do is compare our model results with other model results rather than observed and measured data. We show that long term models, by the nature of their construction, will most likely underestimate the rapid growth in some services observed in a short time span. Also, we learn that modeling saturated energy services like space heating is easier than modeling unsaturated services like space cooling and understanding that how far a service is from its saturation level is a key question which we probably don’t have an answer to. Finally and most importantly, even if long term models partially miss the short term dynamics, the long term insights provides by these models is fairly robust. We conclude by highlighting that our work is the first step in the much wider process of integrated assessment model evaluation and will hence have its own limitations. Future evaluation research work should build upon this zero order experiment for improving our modeling of human and coupled earth systems.

building energy↗
DOE OSTI2025

Analysis of US Industrial Assessment Centers (IACs) implementation

Industrial energy assessments are a fundamental action toward developing a decarbonization strategy at any level. They provide an understanding of where energy efficiency opportunities exist and help to make informed business decisions about the costs and benefits of implementing sustainable policies and practices. This paper examines the effectiveness of the Department of Energy's Industrial Assessment Centers Program at providing useful energy-efficiency audits as well as the barriers faced by the program and plans for future growth and improvement. This paper presents an analysis of the program between 1981 and 2022, covering 20,290 industrial assessments and 151,198 recommendations, with $2.6 billion of recommended savings. The analysis includes a breakdown of the IAC recommendations and implemented projects based on both the industrial subsectors according to the Standard Industrial Classification code, energy type, and systems evaluated. The results include a 47 % implementation rate, a gap analysis to understand the missed opportunities, and a discussion about reasons for recommendation rejection. A comparison of the IAC Program with other country-level energy auditing or assessment programs was conducted, and suggestions for improving implementation rates were mentioned.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2011

A combined approach to investigate the toxicity of an industrial landfill's leachate: Chemical analyses, risk assessment and in vitro assays

Solid wastes constitute an important and emerging problem. Landfills are still one of the most common ways to manage waste disposal. The risk assessment of pollutants from landfills is becoming a major environmental issue in Europe, due to the large number of sites and to the importance of groundwater protection. Furthermore, there is lack of knowledge for the environmental, ecotoxicological and toxicological characteristics of most contaminants contained into landfill leacheates. Understanding leachate composition and creating an integrated strategy for risk assessment are currently needed to correctly face the landfill issues and to make projections on the long-term impacts of a landfill, with particular attention to the estimation of possible adverse effects on human health and ecosystem. In the present study, we propose an integrated strategy to evaluate the toxicity of the leachate using chemical analyses, risk assessment guidelines and in vitro assays using the hepatoma HepG2 cells as a model. The approach was applied on a real case study: an industrial waste landfill in northern Italy for which data on the presence of leachate contaminants are available from the last 11 years. Results from our ecological risk models suggest important toxic effects on freshwater fish and small rodents, mainly due to ammonia and inorganic constituents. Our results from in vitro data show an inhibition of cell proliferation by leachate at low doses and cytotoxic effect at high doses after 48 h of exposure. - Research highlights: {yields} We study the toxicity of leachate from a non-hazardous industrial waste landfill. {yields} We perform chemical analyses, risk assessments and in vitro assays on HepG2 cells. {yields} Risk models suggest toxic effects due to ammonia and inorganic constituents. {yields} In vitro assays show that leachate inhibits cell proliferation at low doses. {yields} Leachate can induce cytotoxic effects on HepG2 cells at high doses.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2017

Assessing the impact of hazardous waste on children's health: The exposome paradigm

Assessment of the health impacts related to hazardous waste is a major scientific challenge with multiple societal implications. Most studies related to associations between hazardous waste and public health do not provide established of mechanistic links between environmental exposure and disease burden, resulting in ineffective waste management options. The exposome concept comes to overhaul the nature vs. nurture paradigm and embraces a world of dynamic interactions between environmental exposures, endogenous exposures and genetic expression in humans. In this context, the exposome paradigm provides a novel tool for holistic hazardous waste management. Waste streams and the related contamination of environmental media are not viewed in isolation, but rather as components of the expotype, the vector of exposures an individual is exposed to over time. Thus, a multi-route and multi-pathway exposure estimation can be performed setting a realistic basis for integrated health risk assessment. Waste management practices are thus assessed not only regarding their technological edge and efficacy but also their effects on human health at the individual and community level, considering intra-subject variability in the affected population. The effectiveness of the exposome approach is demonstrated in the case of Athens, the capital of Greece, where the health effects associated to long term and short term exposure to two major waste management facilities (landfill and plastic recycling) are presented. Using the exposome analysis tools, we confirmed that proximity to a landfill is critical for children neurodevelopment. However, this effect is significantly modified by parameters such as parental education level, socioeconomic status and nutrition. Proximity to a plastics recycling plant does not pose significant threats under normal operating conditions; yet, in the case of an accidental fire, release of persistent carcinogenic compounds (dioxins and furans) even for a short period results in increased lifelong risk, especially for breast feeding neonates. - Highlights: • The exposome paradigm integrates short and long term exposures. • Proximity to landfill results in lower neurodevelopmental scores in children. • Fire in waste recycling plant increases the cancer risk in local children. • Exposome provides new opportunities for assessing waste management health impact.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Assessment and uncertainty analysis of groundwater risk

Highlights: • Two different sets of index evaluation systems for shallow and deep groundwater were built respectively. • Ordinary kriging was adopted to execute the interpolation estimation. • The synthetic weights were adopted merging the AHP method and PCA method. • The uncertainty of groundwater risk was analyzed by indicator kriging. Groundwater with relatively stable quantity and quality is commonly used by human being. However, as the over-mining of groundwater, problems such as groundwater funnel, land subsidence and salt water intrusion have emerged. In order to avoid further deterioration of hydrogeological problems in over-mining regions, it is necessary to conduct the assessment of groundwater risk. In this paper, risks of shallow and deep groundwater in the water intake area of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in Tianjin, China, were evaluated. Firstly, two sets of four-level evaluation index system were constructed based on the different characteristics of shallow and deep groundwater. Secondly, based on the normalized factor values and the synthetic weights, the risk values of shallow and deep groundwater were calculated. Lastly, the uncertainty of groundwater risk assessment was analyzed by indicator kriging method. The results meet the decision maker's demand for risk information, and overcome previous risk assessment results expressed in the form of deterministic point estimations, which ignore the uncertainty of risk assessment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Occurrence of cyclic imines in European commercial seafood and consumers risk assessment

Highlights: • First study of cyclic imines in commercial shellfish samples from Europe. • First study including samples from eight European countries during two years. • First report dealing risk assessment on pinnatoxins. • Completes information regarding spirolides from the EFSA report on 2010. • Increases database on levels of CIs in shellfish to perform a risk assessment. Cyclic imines constitute a quite recently discovered group of marine biotoxins that act on neural receptors and that bioaccumulate in seafood. They are grouped together due to the imino group functioning as their common pharmacore, responsible for acute neurotoxicity in mice. Cyclic imines (CIs) have not been linked yet to human poisoning and are not regulated in the European Union (EU), although the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) requires more data to perform conclusive risk assessment for consumers. Several commercial samples of bivalves including raw and processed samples from eight countries (Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Ireland, Norway, The Netherlands and Denmark) were obtained over 2 years. Emerging cyclic imine concentrations in all the samples were analysed on a LC-3200QTRAP and LC-HRMS QExactive mass spectrometer. In shellfish, two CIs, pinnatoxin G (PnTX-G) and 13-desmethylspirolide C (SPX-1) were found at low concentrations (0.1–12 µg/kg PnTX-G and 26–66 µg/kg SPX-1), while gymnodimines and pteriatoxins were not detected in commercial (raw and processed) samples. In summary, SPX-1 (n: 47) and PnTX-G (n: 96) were detected in 9.4% and 4.2% of the samples, respectively, at concentrations higher than the limit of quantification (LOQ), and in 7.3% and 31.2% of the samples at concentrations lower than the LOQ (25 µg/kg for SPX-1 and 3 µg/kg for PnTX-G), respectively. For the detected cyclic imines, the average exposure and the 95th percentile were calculated. The results obtained indicate that it is unlikely that a potential health risk exists through the seafood diet for CIs in the EU. However, further information about CIs is necessary in order to perform a conclusive risk assessment.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Adapting ecological risk valuation for natural resource damage assessment in water pollution

Highlights: • An approach is proposed to assess water damages from pollution incident. • Sewage treatment cost is analyzed to estimate the value of water quality damage. • DEA is employed to classify samples of sewage plants based on their efficiency. • The relation between treatment cost and the decrease of COCs is determined. • The range of damage cost is determined based on efficient and inefficient samples. Ecological risk assessment can address requirements of natural resource damage assessment by quantifying the magnitude of possible damages to the ecosystem. This paper investigates an approach to assess water damages from pollution incident on the basis of concentrations of contaminants. The baseline of water pollution is determined with not-to-exceed concentration of contaminants required by water quality standards. The values of damage cost to water quality are estimated through sewage treatment cost. To get a reliable estimate of treatment cost, DEA is employed to classify samples of sewage plants based on their efficiency of sewage treatment. And exponential fitting is adopted to determine the relation between treatment cost and the decrease of COCs. The range of damage costs is determined through the fitting curves respectively based on efficient and inefficient samples.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2018

Ecological and human exposure assessment to PBDEs in Adige River

Highlights: • Exposure assessment of aquatic species in Adige river to PBDEs Population exposure to PBDEs due to contaminated freshwater fish ingestion. • Use of MERLIN-Expo model for integrated exposure assessment. • Comparability between simulated and real PBDEs concentrations in aquatic species. • Different exposure trends to PBDEs were observed for children, adolescent, adult and elderly. The interest for environmental issues and the concern resulting from the potential exposure to contaminants were the starting point to develop methodologies in order to evaluate the consequences that those might have over both the environment and human health. Considering the feature of POPs, including PBDEs, such as bioaccumulation, biomagnification, long-range transport and adverse effects even long time after exposure, risk assessment of POPs requires specific approaches and tools. In this particular context, the MERLIN-Expo tool was used to assess the aquatic environmental exposure of Adige River to PBDEs and the accumulation of PBDEs in humans through the consumption of possible contaminated local aquatic food. The aquatic food web models provided as output of the deterministic simulation the time trend of concentrations for twenty years of BDE-47 and total PBDEs, expressed using the physico-chemical properties of BDE-47, in aquatic organisms of the food web of Adige River. For BDE-47, the highest accumulated concentrations were detected for two benthic species: Thymallus thymallus and Squalius cephalus whereas the lowest concentrations were obtained for the pelagic specie Salmo trutta marmoratus. The trend obtained for the total PBDEs, calculated using the physico-chemical properties of BDE-47, follows the one of BDE-47. For human exposure, different BDE-47 and total PBDEs concentration trends between children, adolescent, adults and elderly were observed, probably correlated with the human intake of fish products in the daily diet and the ability to metabolize these contaminants. In detail, for the adolescents, adults and elderly a continuous accumulation of the target contaminants during the simulation's years was observed, whereas for children a plateau at the end of the simulation period was perceived.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2015

Assessment of the importance of spatial scale in long-term land use modelling of the Midwestern United States

The purpose of this study is to assess the value of enhanced spatial resolution in the agriculture and land use component of an integrated assessment model. While these models have historically represented land use decisions at the scale of geopolitical regions, the present generation uses regions defined by climatic or environmental characteristics, to better represent the spatial heterogeneity of land productivity and potential uses. However, increasing a model’s spatial resolution incurs costs, including input data processing, structural modifications, increased run time, and increased complexity of results. This study uses the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM) to analyze land use in the Midwestern United States in three levels of sub-regional aggregation and three scenarios of future climate mitigation. We demonstrate benefits of enhanced spatial resolution, and to facilitate the assessment of higher resolution model output we apply non-metric multidimensional scaling on a pair-wise distance matrix for visualization and analysis.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Techno-economic life cycle assessment of CO 2 -EOR operations towards net negative emissions at farnsworth field unit

Optimizations of CO 2 Water Alternating Gas(WAG)- systems with multi-objectives of incremental recovery and maximization of CO 2 storage are challenging. Here, the incorporation of a total Greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle assessment is mostly ignored leading to inaccurate estimation of overall net carbon emissions of their operations. In this study, the effect of a total GHG life cycle assessment on a multi-objective CO 2 -WAG optimization with integrated techno-economic assessment (TEA) which factors carbon tax credit is conducted. A life cycle assessment (LCA) was conducted utilizing a 20 -year optimized post history matched data from a high fidelity reservoir simulation model. Using data generated from the optimum result, a techno-economic life cycle analysis was further conducted. The first scenario classified as the base model had an estimated 81% of purchased CO 2 sequestered. The results through a comprehensive techno-economic LCA model yielded a net estimate of 73% of purchased CO 2 . The optimized forecasted model which considered key operational and reservoir factors such as WAG ratio, injection rates and periods, and well specification resulted in an improved sequestration of 92% of purchased CO 2 . However, this also dropped to 84% after taking it through LCA. These results clearly indicate a significant amount of net CO 2 is not accounted for when operations are not analyzed through LCA. From the LCA, direct flaring volumes of CO 2 , energy consumption and efficiency of unit equipment were noticed to be the major causes of these reductions. Considering ten main sources of energy as source of energy generation, a comparative techno-eco LCA was conducted. The results confirmed a lower net volume and NPV for energy sources with higher carbon footprints and vice versa. Thus, a total LCA of CO 2 -WAG greatly influences net storage factor of purchased CO 2 and hence project NPV where tax credit/incentives per ton of CO 2 sequestered is considered. Although operational conditions are optimized for best results, there are significant factors that leads to minimization of net storage factor. This study therefore provides an insightful information for optimizing CO 2 -WAG multi-objectives to achieve minimum GHG emission.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2022

CO 2 Pipeline risk assessment and comparison for the midcontinent United States

For this work, a comprehensive quantitative risk assessment for the construction and operation of CO 2 transportation networks considered for the Midcontinent United States was conducted. The results showed risks associated with CO 2 pipelines were significantly less than those of other pipeline types. The assessment used four conceptual pipelines of different lengths to discuss risks operators may see. The assessment evaluated the risk associated with construction and operation using data from the US Occupational Safety Health Administration to determine the risk of injury or death for pipeline workers and data from the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration for CO 2 , natural gas distribution, natural gas transmission/gathering, and non-CO 2 hazardous liquid pipelines to develop quantitative likelihood and severity values leading to risk values. The data for the assessment covered incidents from 2010 to 2017 for CO 2 pipelines. The average risk for construction and 30 years of operation for four CO 2 pipeline configurations ranging between 79 and 1,546 miles in length was found. The construction and operational risk averaged between $\$1,400,521$ (approximately $\$0.02$/tonne of CO 2 ) for the shorter pipeline (79 miles) and $\$27,481,939$ (approximately $\$0.10$/tonne of CO 2 ) for a longer pipeline (1,546 miles). The largest risks of fatality for CO 2 pipelines comes from vehicle transport. The largest operational risk to the pipeline was due to leakage. Public pipeline opposition is also a significant risk; it was not quantified but is addressed.

03 NATURAL GAS↗