The Two Chemical Giants Lead The Construction of The World's Largest CCS Project

Media Update: Shell has joined what may be the world’s largest carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the future, the CCS Innovation District.

Introduced by ExxonMobil in April 2021, the mega-giant's plan is to capture carbon dioxide from petrochemical and industrial facilities in the Houston Seaway and transport it to offshore reservoirs via subsea pipelines.

The realization of this large-scale project will depend on the help of many other businesses and public stakeholders, as well as the skills of petroleum technicians who will be challenged to de-risk the formations in the region to find formations that are truly suitable for absorbing large amounts of carbon dioxide.

$100 Billion CCS Plan

ExxonMobil expects the CCS hub in Houston to deliver up to 50 million tons/year of CO2 to offshore reservoirs by 2030 and 100 million tons by 2040; a figure that is seven times the total U.S. CCS capacity today .

Globally, ExxonMobil has sequestered about 9 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. About 7.4 million tonnes of that were injected underground at the company's Shute Creek facility in Wyoming, currently the world's largest CCS project.

ExxonMobil, which will require at least $100 billion in new CCS projects, is asking for support at the federal, state and local levels to create a "CCS Innovation District" in Houston. The plan will be similar to other economic zones established by governments around the world to promote the development of strategic industries in the country.

According to Blommaert, head of ExxonMobil's Low Carbon Solutions division, "Houston has two characteristics of CCS that make it an ideal location: it has many large industrial emissions sources, and it is in geological formations near the Gulf of Mexico that can store A lot of carbon dioxide, safe and permanent."

Citing data from the U.S. Department of Energy, ExxonMobil estimates the carbon dioxide storage potential along the U.S. Gulf Coast at about 500 billion tons. That's the equivalent of more than a century of emissions from the U.S. industrial and power generation base.

A 2020 paper by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin's Energy Institute also highlighted the area's "favorable stratigraphic properties" for permanent storage. Their research, supported and guided by ExxonMobil, provides a potential target for the supergiant's CCS project: the delta brine aquifer.

To help operators better screen candidates in the future, researchers at the University of Texas have developed what they call a "unique and distinctive" geological model and simulation workflow. Their model reproduced delta formations in the Gulf of Mexico at depths ranging from 1,000 meters to 2,500 meters.

A centerpiece of the paper is that different rock types and their structures may affect how injected carbon dioxide migrates within geological storage sites.

The analysis shows that the shale layer is a very effective cap, or flow barrier, to carbon dioxide. The simulation results show that the CO2 retention rate is as high as 100% in the case of shale cover.

14 well-known energy companies evaluated and inspected at the same time

Industrial gas company Air Liquide and chemical manufacturer BASF also joined Shell in expressing support for the project.

A further 14 companies are evaluating the project, including oil and gas producers, refiners, chemical companies and power generators. In addition to ExxonMobil, companies supporting the program include: Chevron, Marathon Oil, Phillips 66, Dow Chemical, INEOS, Linde, LyondellBasell, NRG Energy and Calpine.

Shell's decision to back the Exxon-led project comes just a few months after the company failed to secure a CCS deal. Shell said the deal would generate more than $100 million in government revenue for neighboring Louisiana. In October, Shell was one of a handful of oil producers to protest the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources awarding CCS operating agreements to two non-oil and gas companies.

The 14 companies supporting the Houston-area CCS Innovation Center said they are in the evaluation phase. Last December, they attended a symposium at the University of Houston focused on how the consortium will work together to launch very large-scale CCS projects.

"As the energy capital of the world, Houston has the expertise and leadership of industry, academia and policymakers to achieve a low-carbon, reliable and affordable energy future. I look forward to working with these 14 companies to enable Houston becomes a global leader in CCS," said Charles McConnell, director of the University of Houston's Carbon Management Energy Center, in a press statement.

ExxonMobil and a growing number of partners have made recommendations on when construction of the CCS Innovation Center will begin. Whether the 2030 or 2040 injection targets will be met remains uncertain.