NRG says it has completed the construction of Petra Nova, the world’s largest post-combustion carbon capture system, on-time and on-budget.

The Petra Nova project captures carbon emissions from NRG’s W A Parish coal-fired power plant in Texas, USA, and uses them for enhanced oil recovery in nearby oil fields. Its partners in the project include JX Nippon and Hilcorp.

“Completion of the Petra Nova project is an important milestone in our quest to help ensure reliable, affordable and increasingly cleaner energy from fossil fuels,” said Mauricio Gutierrez, President and CEO of NRG Energy. “This project represents another major step in NRG’s effort to reduce our carbon emissions and create a more sustainable energy future, and we are proud that this accomplishment was achieved on-budget and on-schedule in a competitive energy environment.”

Construction of the Petra Nova project began in 2014 and it first captured carbon dioxide in September 2016, NRG said. Hilcorp will use the captured carbon dioxide to boost production at the West Ranch oilfield, 129 km from the W A Parish plant.

“To date we have drilled nearly 100 new wells in the West Ranch field and have implemented a robust CO2 and ground water monitoring program,” said Jeffery D. Hildebrand, Chairman and CEO of Hilcorp Energy Company. “We are excited about this project, and expect to see a meaningful increase in oil production at West Ranch in the near future.”

Final performance acceptance testing on the Petra Nova facility was completed in December 2016, NRG said. During performance testing, the system met all performance criteria including capturing more than 90 per cent of CO2 from a 240 MW equivalent slipstream of flue gas off one of the W A Parish’s existing units. At this level of operation, Petra Nova can capture more than 5,000 tons of CO2 per day.

Petra Nova uses the KM-CDR Process, which was jointly developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) and the Kansai Electric Power Co., Inc., and employs a proprietary KS-1 high-performance solvent for the CO2 absorption and desorption.

The carbon capture facility was constructed under a fixed-price contract by a consortium of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Americas, Inc. (MHIA) and TIC (The Industrial Company).