APCI PORT ARTHUR ICCS PROJECT

In October 2009, DOE selected the Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APCI) team to conduct one of 12 projects in Phase 1 of its Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage (ICCS) program. DOE again selected the project in June 2010 as one of three projects to receive continued (Phase 2) funding. In total, DOE is providing approximately $284 million in financial assistance to the APCI Demonstration of CO2 Capture and Storage of Steam Methane Reforming Process Gas Used for Large-Scale Hydrogen Production (APCI Port Arthur CCUS) project from the Recovery Act of 2009.

The APCI Port Arthur ICCS project is demonstrating a state-of-the-art system to concentrate CO2 from two steam methane reformer (SMR) hydrogen production plants located in Port Arthur, Texas.

APCI has retrofitted its two Port Arthur SMRs with a vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) system to separate the CO2 from the process gas stream, followed by compression and drying processes. This process concentrates the initial stream containing from 10 to 20 percent CO2 to greater than 97 percent CO2 purity. The compressed CO2 is then delivered to the Denbury pipeline for transport to Texas Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) projects in the West Hastings Field where a monitoring, verification and accounting (MVA) program ensures the injected CO2 remains in the underground geologic formation. The technology removes more than 90 percent of the CO2 from the process gas stream used in a world-class scale hydrogen production facility with negligible impact on the efficiency of hydrogen production. 

TIMELINE

DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT (EA) ISSUED

On May 17, 2011, the Department of Energy released the draft Environmental Assessment for the APCI Port Arthur ICCS project for public comment.

FINAL EA ISSUED

In July 2011, the Department of Energy released the final Environmental Assessment for the APCI Port Arthur ICCS project.

FINDING OF NO SIGNIFICANT IMPACT (FONSI) ISSUED

On July 8, 2011, the Department of Energy issued the FONSI for the APCI Port Arthur ICCS project.

OTHER MAJOR PERMITS ISSUED

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued a Permit by Rule (PBR) air permit for the APCI Port Arthur ICCS project on May 20, 2011. TCEQ issued a Standard Permit air permit for the project on May 27, 2011. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued Nationwide Permit Verification for the project on August 17, 2011.

CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES

On April 26, 2011, APCI began site preparation with pipe rack demolition. Full construction started on August 23, 2011.  CO2 Lateral Pipeline construction began on May 14, 2012. The CO2 compressor was installed on September 26, 2012 and the pipeline was commissioned and prepared to accept CO2 on December 15, 2012. First firing of the gas turbine occurred on November 17, 2012. APCI completed all major construction activities for the Port Arthur CCUS project on February 27, 2013.

START OF OPERATIONS

The Port Arthur CCUS project was brought on-stream on December 16, 2012, via capture of CO2 from the PA2 SMR with compression and delivery to Denbury. CO2 capture, compression and delivery to Denbury from the PA1 SMR commenced on March 3, 2013. Full-scale operation of the project was initiated on March 7, 2013 with the start-up of the second train of the PA1 SMR.

APCI PROJECT ANNOUNCES MAJOR CO2 CAPTURE MILESTONES

On April 24, 2014, DOE and APCI announced a major milestone: the successful capture and storage of more than one million metric tonnes of CO2 from the hydrogen-production facility in Port Arthur, Texas.

On May 15, 2015, DOE and APCI announced the project successfully captured and stored its two millionth metric ton of CO2.

On June 30, 2016 DOE and APCI announced the project successfully captured and stored its three millionth metric ton of CO2.     

CURRENT STATUS

The project has been in commercial operation since early 2013 and continues to successfully capture, store and utilize the produced CO2 stream.  Air Products has already successfully captured and stored over 3,640,000 metric tons of CO2 as of April 30, 2017, and is on pace to capture and store the 4,000,000th metric ton of CO2 around the September 2017 timeframe.

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