The Japanese JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp. has restarted operations at the Petra Nova Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) project in Texas, which had been closed since May 2020.
JX Nippon restarted operations at the Petra Nova project on September 5, the company said in a press release on Wednesday. The Petra Nova facility captures carbon dioxide from flue gases from the WA Parish thermal power plant in Texas. The captured greenhouse gas travels through an 80-mile pipeline to an oil field near Houston for use in enhanced oil recovery operations to increase extraction. The project’s carbon capture facility is one of the largest in the world and can capture approximately 1.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year, the statement said.
In September, JX Nippon acquired an additional 50 percent in Petra Nova Parish Holdings LLC, owner of the Petra Nova project, making it a consolidated subsidiary of the Japanese firm. The acquisition was made to “further expand” its CCUS know-how, JX Nippon said.
The Petra Nova facility began operating in 2017 and had a 90 percent carbon capture target. According to a previous report by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), the actual rate of carbon dioxide capture was substantially less than 90 percent, perhaps as low as 65 to 70 percent. cent, according to data from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The unit ran into technical difficulties, falling short of its 85 percent operational target, and was taken offline in May 2020.
In October 2022, NRG Energy Inc. sold its 50 percent stake in the project for $3.6 million, representing just a small fraction of the project’s $1 billion construction costs. The sale left JX Nippon as the sole owner of the 1,904 MW Petra Nova coal-fired power plant in Texas.
ENEOS Group, which owns JX Nippon, aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040. “JX Nippon’s accumulated knowledge and technology in this field, including through the Petra Nova CCUS project, are crucial to achieving the ENEOS group’s commitment to the realization of a carbon neutral society”, said the group.
Meanwhile, JX Nippon, Future Energy Exports CRC Ltd. (FEnEx CRC, Low Emission Technology Australia (LETA), Mitsui OSK Lines Ltd. (MOL) and Osaka Gas Co. Ltd. signed an agreement to conduct research into the technical feasibility and operability of low-pressure, low-temperature solutions for the bulk transport of carbon dioxide by ship, according to a previous press release.
LP Technology’s R&D project will involve studying the behavior and evaporation characteristics of liquid carbon dioxide under dynamic operating conditions and the impact of non-carbon dioxide components. The project also aims to design pilot-scale CCUS demonstration tests that can be scaled up as part of a later project, according to the release.
“Australia has a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in the development of industrial-scale CO2 transport. Successful research in this area will help maximize economic opportunities for Australia, as well as increase collaboration and international cooperation vital to advancing our decarbonisation goals,” said Eric May, CEO and CEO of FEnEx CRC.
“LETA has been investing in low-emission technologies for more than a decade to significantly reduce emissions and support the transition to a global low-emission economy. LETA is proud to invest in this project, which can help test technologies to enable the transport of commercial quantities of CO2 from industrial facilities in Asia to storage locations in Australia and to leverage the key business and trade relationship that Australia’s export industries have spent generations,” said LETA CEO Mark McCallum.
“We are very honored and excited to have this opportunity to collaborate together with Australian research institutions and Japanese companies to advance the technical and commercial maturation of low-pressure, low-temperature liquefied CO2 shipping transport,” said Yasuchika Noma, executive director of MOL.
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