Petra Nova

The Petra Nova project is a billion dollar endeavor taken upon by NRG Energy and JP Nippon to retrofit their jointly owned W.A Parish coal-fired power plant with post-combustion carbon capture.^[1] The plant, which is located in Thompsons, Texas (just outside of Houston), entered commercial service in 1977, and carbon capture began operation on January 10, 2017. The plant generates 240 MW and 90% of the CO₂ (or 1.4 million tonnes) is captured per year.^[2] The carbon dioxide captured (99% purity) from the power plant is compressed and piped about 82 miles to West Ranch Oil Field, Texas, where it will be used for enhanced oil recovery. The field has a capacity of 60 million barrels of oil and is expected to increase oil production by a factor of 50.^[3] This project is expected to run for at least another 20 years. To satisfy the Clean Coal Power Initiative requirements, the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology has put in place a monitoring plan to keep track of the injection and movement of the CO₂ beneath the surface and in the rock structures at West Ranch.^[3]

Technology

The carbon capture unit is retrofitted onto the coal-fired power plant and uses an amine-based absorption system, or the KM CDR Process (Kansai Mitsubishi Carbon Dioxide Recovery). This process was developed by Mitsubishi and Kansai Electric Power and utilizes a high performing proprietary solvent called KS-1.^[4] The CO₂ is removed from the exhaust gas through a basic absorber-stripper system. The gaseous CO₂ is then compressed to a supercritical liquid. The CO₂ leaving the carbon capture plant is over 99% pure and is sent 82 miles through 12 inch diameter pipes to their end location of the West Ranch oil field, where it is used for enhanced oil recovery.^[3] The carbon dioxide from the Petra Nova Initiative will eventually end up in sandstone in the Frio Formation of the West Ranch oil field. It will remain about 5,000 feet underground over a 4,000 acre area.^[3]

Economics

The Petra Nova carbon capture plant cost about $1 billion and received about a $190 million grant from the U.S. Government under the Clean Coal Initiative and a $250 million loan from the Japanese government. The enhanced oil recovery increases the production of West Ranch from 300 to 15,000 barrels per day and was expected to be very economical. However, when the project was first proposed, oil prices were very high (at $100 per barrel) and assumed that they would not drop. The current oil prices, as of 2017, are about $50 per barrel and, thus, creates an economic drawback for Petra Nova.^[5]

References