Demonstration of Carbon Capture and Sequestration of Steam Methane Reforming Process Gas Used for Large-Scale Hydrogen Production
- Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (United States)
The large-scale, on-purpose production of hydrogen in the United States (i.e., ~4600 million standard cubic feet per day) represents one of the most significant industrial sources of CO2 emissions within the chemical industry. Most of the hydrogen is produced by the steam methane reforming (SMR) process, through which methane and water are converted to H2 and CO2, and virtually all of the co-produced CO2 is emitted to the atmosphere. However, the process streams in the SMR plants contain CO2 at concentrations that are amenable to utilization of conventional adsorption and emerging CO2 capture technologies. If implemented commercially, these technologies could represent an early and sizeable impact in reducing industrial CO2 emissions. Therefore, Air Products, working closely with the Department of Energy, has conducted a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project to demonstrate a first-of-a-kind retrofit system to capture CO2 from large-scale industrial SMR plants. Working with the support of Denbury Onshore, LLC (“Denbury Onshore”) and its affiliate, Denbury Green Pipeline-Texas, LLC (“Denbury Green Pipeline”), Air Products designed, constructed and continues to operate a state-of-the-art system located at the Valero Port Arthur Refinery in Port Arthur, TX. This system concentrates the CO2 from two SMR waste streams and delivers it into the Green Pipeline-Texas for transport to and use in the West Hastings Unit enhanced oil recovery (EOR) project. The CO2 removal units were designed by Air Products and utilize vacuum swing adsorption (VSA) units that were retrofitted into each of the SMR trains upstream of existing pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units. This project is unique because the site has two large-scale, highly integrated SMRs located in proximity to one another. The CO2 from this project is concentrated from 15% in the SMR waste stream to at least 98%, then flowed into the Green Pipeline-Texas along the eastern Gulf Coast. The Green Pipeline collects CO2 from a variety of sources that is utilized for tertiary oil recovery in Texas. This project alone can prevent over 1 million tons per year of CO2 from being emitted into the atmosphere, and thus play a major role in significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
- Research Organization:
- Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., Allentown, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- Contributing Organization:
- Denbury Onshore, LLC
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0002381
- OSTI ID:
- 1437618
- Report Number(s):
- Final report
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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