Petra Nova Carbon Capture Plant Opens In Richmond

RICHMOND, TX -- The largest carbon capture facility in the world opened Thursday morning in a rural stretch of Fort Bend County, and it could have global implication in the energy industry and on environmental stewardship.

The project, which is a joint venture between NRG and JX Nippon Oil and Gas is designed to capture up to 90 percent of the carbon dioxide.

The process will reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and prolong the operational life of the W.A. Parish Plant, where Petra Nova is located. (Sign up for Patch’s daily newsletter for your neighborhood.)

Quite simply, the Petra Nova system will capture up to 5,000 tons of carbon dioxide a day, the equivalent of taking 350,000 automobiles off the road.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and U.S. Energy Secretary where at the facility to officially open the facility that came online in late 2016.

In September 2014, state, local and federal officials broke ground on the Petra Nova Carbon Capture Facility at the W.A. Parish Facility outside of Richmond, and many on hand saw the potential for economic development, job creation and environmental progress.

Richard Morrison, who was Fort Bend County’s Precinct 1 Commissioner at the time, is also a practicing environmental attorney, and called the project a job creator and revenue generator for the county.

The project, which was in the planning stages for at least two years before the 2014 groundbreaking, was selected by the United States Department of Energy to receive up to $190 million as part of the Clean Coal Power Initiative Program.

The Petra Nova Project uses a proven process jointly developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. and the Kansai Electric Power Company., that filters the CO2 to be used and enhanced oil production.

Once the carbon dioxide is it is filtered, the gas is sent from the plant through an 81-mile pipeline to the West Ranch Oilfield in Vanderbilt, Texas, which will be used in a process called Enhanced Oil Recovery to create a revenue stream for the carbon capture project and increase domestic oil production from 300 barrels a day to 15,000 per day, while also sequestering carbon dioxide underground.

Image: Roy Luck via Flickr

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