Posted on August 9, 2018 by Rich Powell
Enhanced oil recovery, the process of injecting and trapping carbon into the ground at mature fields to extract hard-to-reach petroleum, has been going on for decades. Nine large facilities in the U.S. currently do this. But only one – Petra Nova near Houston – is a power plant. Why? Because capturing and sending that carbon to oil fields isn’t easy or cheap.
In his latest digital whiteboard video, ClearPath Executive Director Rich Powell (with the visual assistance of Production Director Mitch Kersey) details the results from a recent enhanced oil recovery study sponsored by ClearPath and the Carbon Utilization Research Council, with support from key unions. It found that the carbon emissions from power plants- 17 to 87 gigawatts from coal and natural gas – could be captured and sold for enhanced oil recovery in the United States by 2040. An aggressive research, development and demonstration program to achieve industry cost and performance targets was found to dramatically increase deployment. This strategy must include public and private partnerships throughout the entire RD&D cycle, more aggressive investments and streamlined permitting for pipelines that can carry the carbon from the plant to oil fields.