World's Largest Carbon-Capture Plant to Open Soon
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Towers will grab gas emitted by a huge coal power plant for use pumping oil out of the ground.
By Umair Irfan, (ClimateWire October 4, 2016)
On schedule, on budget....
It’s a tall order for any new technology, but for a commercial carbon capture and storage (CCS) system, it might be the start of a revolution.
The Petra Nova carbon capture system under construction at the W.A. Parish Generating Station, a coal-fired power plant southwest of Houston, is slated to go online before the end of the year. The billion-dollar facility will become the largest post-combustion carbon capture system installed on an existing power plant in the world.
Systems like Petra Nova that keep carbon dioxide from reaching the atmosphere may become a necessary means to mitigate climate change, and for some utilities, they could offer a lifeline to beleaguered fossil fuel plants.
"We believe that coal plants are an important part of the energy mix of the United States," said David Greeson, vice president for development at NRG Energy Inc.. "Our challenge, then, is to mitigate the environmental impacts." NRG Energy and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp., Japan’s largest oil producer, are running the Petra Nova project as a 50-50 joint venture under the umbrella of Petra Nova Parish Holdings LLC.
