Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has received an order for a world’s largest post combustion CO2 capture system for the enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project in Texas, USA, which is primarily promoted by NRG Energy, an independent power producer (IPP) of the US, and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp, a JX Group company of Japan. The system will capture CO2 from flue gas from an existing coal-fired power generation plant and will have a CO2 capture capacity of 4,776 t/d. The system is slated for completion in the fourth quarter of 2016.
MHI received the CO2 capture system order from Petra Nova, a special purpose company of NRG and one of the companies implementing the project, through Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America (MHIA), a wholly owned subsidiary of MHI in the USA
The consortium partner of MHIA in receiving order from Petra Nova is TIC – The Industrial Co, a heavy industrial contractor.
The EOR project involves the separation and capture of CO2 from flue gas emitted from Unit 8 of NRG’s WA Parish generation station, a coal-fired power generation plant, located approximately 60 km southwest of Houston, Texas, and injection of the CO2 into nearby West Ranch oil field to boost crude oil production.
The CO2 capture system will consist of a flue-gas quencher, absorber and regeneration system, CO2 compression unit, and utility facilities. It will have a CO2 capture efficiency of 90%. MHI will license CO2 capture technology to Petra Nova through MHIA. The MHIA/TIC consortium will undertake engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the CO2 capture system and its ancillary facilities
MHI’s CO2 capture technology is the KM CDR Process®, which uses a proprietary KS-1 TM high-performance solvent for CO2 absorption and desorption that was jointly developed by MHI and the Kansai Electric Power Co. Compared with other CO2 capture technologies, the KM CDR Process uses significantly less energy. Its outstanding performance is highly regarded, and the process has been adopted in many CO2 capture plants in Japan and abroad, making MHI the leader in this industry
In the area of CO2 capture from coal-fired flue gas, which requires highly sophisticated technology due to various impurities contained in the flue gas, MHI has already established an impressive track record. For instance, MHI has conducted small-scale demonstration testing for CO2 capture from coal-fired flue gas at 10 t/d since 2006, in cooperation with Electric Power Development (J-POWER) and completed the verification of uninterrupted table operations. More recently, the 500 t/d CO2 capture demonstration test for capturing and sequestering CO2 from emissions at a coal-fired power generation plant, conducted jointly by MHI and Southern Company Services (SCS), was completed in December last year, achieving initial phase targets. Based on these results, MHI has been promoting its commercial applications.
MHI believes that its track record is gaining wider recognition within the industry and proved instrumental in the latest order for this world’s largest flue gas CO2 capture system for an existing coal-fired power generation plant.
EOR projects, including the project related to this order, are advanced solutions, which concurrently address issues in both environment and energy fields. MHI will participate in this meaningful EOR project, enabling stable operation of the CO2 capture system. Going forward, MHI intends to continue its support of sustainable environment preservation and economic development through its aggressive involvement in this field.
