JGC, INPEX, and BASF announced that they have entered into an agreement to jointly carry out demonstration tests on a new technology for effectively capturing and recovering CO₂ contained in natural gas. JGC and BASF jointly began developing the new technology called High Pressure Acid Gas Capture Technology (HiPACT) in 2004. The tests are carried out at INPEX’s Koshijihara natural gas plant (Nagaoka city, Niigata prefecture) starting August 2010.

The new technology is said to have a significantly higher CO₂ absorption rate than existing processes and to be capable of recovering CO₂ under high-pressure conditions. The advantages of the HiPACT technology are:

1. it reduces the overall power consumption of the facility and lowers investment costs.
2. because the CO₂ is released from the solvent at well above atmospheric pressure there is a significant reduction in the amount of energy required if CO₂ is used in high pressure applications such as chemical synthesis or sequestered underground.

• BASF, Germnay
• JGA, Japan
• INPEX, Japan