BASF, JGC and INPEX claim carbon capture advance

Yokohama, Japan - JGC, INPEX and BASF announced today that they have entered into an agreement to jointly carry out demonstration tests on a new technology for effectively capturing and recovering CO₂ contained in natural gas. The tests are being carried out at INPEX’s Koshijihara natural gas plant in Nagaoka city, Niigata Prefecture.

Natural gas often contains CO₂ when it is extracted from the well. Whether the natural gas is transported via pipelines, converted to LNG or used in chemical processes, the CO₂ has to be captured beforehand.

Even state-of-the-art CO₂ capture processes require a large amount of energy and the removal facilities account for a major part of investment and operating costs.

JGC and BASF jointly began developing a new technology for a CO₂ capture process called High Pressure Acid Gas Capture Technology (HiPACT) in 2004. Following basic research and a series of trials, the new technology is said to show a significantly higher CO₂ absorption rate than existing processes and is capable of recovering CO₂ under high-pressure conditions.

An important aspect in this development is transferring the new technology to an operating gas processing facility. HiPACT technology, said BASF, reduces the overall power consumption of the facility and lowers investment costs.

Moreover, because the CO₂ is released from the solvent at well above atmospheric pressure there is a significant reduction in the amount of energy required if CO₂ is used in high-pressure applications such as chemical synthesis or sequestered underground.

Going forward with information from the test results, JGC and BASF said they will focus on the commercialisation of HiPACT technology in all
relevant sectors, for example, in natural gas projects with CO₂ re-injection.

INPEX also plans to achieve further energy savings at its natural gas plants through the use of HiPACT technology.