US projects receive funds to demonstrate carbon capture

Two of the three projects will use the stored CO₂ for enhancing the recovery of oil, while the third will store the carbon dioxide in a deep saline formation. Between the three, they are expected to capture and store 6.5m tons of CO₂ per year.

In the first of the projects, Leucadia Energy and Denbury Onshore plan to capture and sequester 4.5m tons of CO₂ per year from a new methanol plant in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The CO₂ will be sequestered for enhanced oil recovery use in the West Hastings oilfield south of Houston starting in April 2014.

The project team involved includes Leucadia Energy, Denbury, General Electric, Haldor Topsoe, Black and Veatch, Turner Industries, and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology.

In the second of the three projects, Air Products and Chemicals will partner with Denbury Onshore to capture and sequester one million tons of CO₂ per year from existing steam-methane reformers in Port Arthur, Texas, starting in November 2012. The CO₂ captured will also be sequestered via use for enhanced oil recovery in the West Hastings oilfield.