Summit Power, Linde Group to capture CO2 from oilfields

US-based Summit Power Group and The Linde Group have joined forces to develop commercial-scale natural gas-fired power plants, to capture CO2 in depleting oilfields.

The new power plants will capture about 90% of CO2, which would otherwise have been discharged into the environment, by using natural gas-fired power plant technology and carbon capture technology.

In many US oilfield locations the volume of CO2 captured from a typical natural gas-fired power plant can also be used to produce an additional 1.5 to 2.5 million barrels of oil per year.

Injection of CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR) reduces CO2 emissions to the atmosphere and increases available oil reserves.

During the process, any CO2 that comes to the surface with the produced oil is re-compressed and re-injected, while the produced oil does not add to the total world oil consumption or demand, however replaces the equivalent volume of oil produced by other means.

Both the companies have planned to develop a gas-fired power plant that can produce about 250MW of electric power, which will provide electricity to 250,000 homes, as well as capture about 750,000t of CO2 annually.

Summit Power’s chairman and former US Secretary of Energy, Donald Paul Hodel, said the electric power sector is creating a dash for gas in the US and abroad.

"Technology is ready to capture the CO2 that gas-fired power plants produce, and Summit, in partnership with Linde, is ready to develop those plants, just as Summit has developed thousands of megawatts of conventional gas-fired power plants in the past," Hodel added.

Both the companies are already in the process of developing power projects by capturing CO2, where CO2 will be geologically seized in depleted gas fields and deep saline formations or injected into depleting oilfields.

Summit is currently developing two major coal gasification projects, namely the Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) in the US and the Captain Clean Energy Project (CCEP) in UK, which will capture 90% of the CO2 that is produced.

Linde will be the technology, engineering and construction contractor, as well as long-term operations and maintenance provider to TCEP.

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Image: Summit Power Group and The Linde Group have collaborated to natural gas-fired power plants. Image: courtesy of Ibagli.