Today, we celebrate the third operating anniversary of Petra Nova, the world’s largest coal-fired power plant post-combustion carbon dioxide (CO2) capture system. Since coming online on January 10, 2017, the Petra Nova project has captured over 3.9 million short (US) tons of CO2, which was used to produce over 4.2 million barrels of oil through enhanced oil recovery (EOR). These achievements demonstrate how carbon-capture technologies can enhance the long-term viability and sustainability of coal-fired power plants.

Learn more about the project and its key milestones below:

Petra Nova Operating Anniversary

The Petra Nova Project

As a part of the U.S. Government’s Clean Coal Power Initiative program, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) provided a $190 million grant to the Petra Nova project with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) helped to manage the project. Owned and operated by NRG Energy, Inc. and JX Nippon Oil and Gas Exploration Corporation, the Petra Nova project successfully retrofit carbon-capture technology onto a unit at the coal-fired W.A. Parish Generating Station located southwest of Houston, TX.

Petra Nova is designed to capture approximately 90 percent of the CO2 from a 240-megawatt equivalent flue gas slipstream—which is approximately 1.6 million tons of CO2 per year. The captured CO2 is compressed, dried, and transported to the West Ranch Oil Field in Jackson County, TX. Then, the CO2 is used in EOR to boost oil production.

Project Milestones

Keep your eye on the Office of Fossil Energy’s website and NETL's website for updates on Petra Nova’s continued advancements.