Texas Petra Nova facility one of two carbon capture, storage capable power plants worldwide

With the start of operations for a coal-fired power plant earlier this year, Houston, Texas, has become notable as hosting one of only two operating power plants capable of carbon capture and storage (CCS) in the world.

The Petra Nova facility is also the only one of its kind in the United States, working to diminish the release of CO2 caused by the combustion of fossil fuels. Its 240-megawatt system approaches the issue from three angles. It absorbs plant emissions through a solvent and then strips the CO2 involved from that solvent through a regenerator, in a process known as post-combustion. It also uses oxy-combustion, by which coal is burned in pure oxygen rather than air, allowing it to capture nearly pure CO2. Lastly, pre-combustion capture allows the facility to turn coal into a synthetic gas that is a mix of pure hydrogen and CO2.

The carbon capture system is designed to seize about 90 percent of the CO2 released from the facility’s flue gas network, which amounts to 33 percent of its Unit 8 structure. The CO2 captured is then used for oil recovery by nearby oil fields, through injection of the CO2 into oil reservoirs, thus increasing the resulting oil flow.

Retrofitting the facility to take on these carbon capture capabilities cost approximately $1 billion and the project was completed without any hitches or delays in January of this year.