Air Products announced that Phase One of its two stage carbon capture project in Port Arthur, TX, USA, is on-stream. Ultimately, the project will capture approximately one million tons of CO₂ annually.

CO₂ is captured from steam reformers, which produce hydrogen to help make cleaner transportation fuel. The CO₂ is then purified and transported by Air Products via a pipeline owned by Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas, LLC, Pleno, TX. The 314 mile pipeline transports the CO₂ for injection into the Denbury Onshore operated West Hastings Unit, Houston, TX. In an enhanced oil recovery project, CO₂ is injected into oil reservoirs to recover additional crude oil.

The Port Arthur hydrogen production facility is part of Air Products’ Gulf Coast hydrogen plant and pipeline supply network. The 600 miles (965 km) pipeline stretches from the Houston Ship Channel, TX, to New Orleans, LA, and serves multiple refinery and petrochemical operations in the region. Hydrogen is widely used in petroleum refining processes to remove impurities found in crude oil such as sulfur, olefins and aromatics to meet the product fuels specifications.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) provided 66 % of the funding for the over $400 million project. According to the DOE, the project will assist in the recovery of 1.6 to 3.1 million additional barrels of domestic oil annually.

• Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Lehigh Valley, PA, USA