Carbon Capture, Use, and Storage Project Reaches Industrial Scale

Air Products and Chemicals hydrogen production facilities in Port Arthur, Texas, have successfully begun capturing carbon dioxide from industrial operations and are now using that carbon for enhanced oil recovery (EOR). The $431 million project, supported by $284 million from the Department of Energy (DOE), is being touted as a milestone in carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS) for progressing beyond demonstration to industrial scale.

The first plant has been capturing carbon dioxide since December 2012; the second completed construction in February and began carbon capture operations in March. Both units are operating at full capacity, and more than 222,000 tons of carbon dioxide had been captured and provided for storage as of early May.

At full-scale operation, the DOE said, more than 90% of the carbon dioxide from the product stream of two methane steam reformers—approximately one million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year—will be delivered for sequestration and EOR, which will lead to an estimated annual increase in oil production of 1.6 million to 3.1 million barrels from the West Hastings oil field located about 20 miles south of Houston.

The projected involved retrofitting Air Products and Chemicals plants that produce commercial bulk hydrogen primarily for use at the nearby Valero refinery. The plant uses a gas-separation technology called "vacuum swing adsorption.” The company says, “This type of system supplies purified oxygen and can be monitored locally, remotely, or through telemonitoring. Air is fed into the system by a blower and then passed through adsorber vessels to separate oxygen from nitrogen, moisture, and other impurities.”

The National Energy Technology Laboratory, which manages the project for the DOE, explains that after compression and drying, the carbon dioxide purity is greater than 97%, concentrated from an initial 10% to 20%. The greenhouse gas is then transported through a pipeline for injection into the Denbury Onshore–operated West Hastings Unit EOR project.

The DOE investment also helped construct a 13.1-mile-long feeder that connects the two plants to the existing 325-mile, 24-inch carbon dioxide pipeline. The DOE says that careful carbon dioxide monitoring, verification, and accounting activities to ensure the injected carbon dioxide remains in the underground geologic formation will take place throughout the lifetime of the project.

Sources: DOE, Air Products, NETL

—Gail Reitenbach, PhD, Managing Editor (@POWERmagazine, @GailReit)