Nacero awards 20-year wind power purchase agreement to NextEra for natural gas-to-gasoline plant in Texas
18 February 2022
Texas-based Nacero, a company seeking to produce low- and zero-lifecycle carbon footprint gasoline blendstock (earlier post) has awarded a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC a 20-year power purchase agreement to supply wind power to Nacero’s planned flagship manufacturing facility in Penwell, Texas.
This agreement is a key component in Nacero’s plan to make its Penwell facility the first and largest supplier of lower and net-zero lifecycle carbon footprint gasoline for everyday American drivers. The Penwell facility will have the capacity to meet the needs of 4 million drivers in Texas and the Southwest.
The agreement calls for NextEra Energy Resources’ Texas wind power operations to provide Nacero with nearly 20 billion kilowatt-hours of green electricity over 20 years starting in 2025. The wind power will complement Nacero’s planned 200-megawatt on-site solar photovoltaic power plant and ensure that the facility is powered by 100% renewable electricity.
Nacero has licensed Topsoe TIGAS technology to produce gasoline component ready for blending to US commercial grades. Topsoe is providing engineering and design services currently and will supply catalyst and proprietary hardware.
Gasoline produced by the TIGAS technology contains no sulfur, is cost-competitive with traditional gasoline, and can be used in today’s cars and trucks without modification.
The Penwell facility will produce Nacero Blue Gasoline made from natural gas using renewable power and carbon capture and Nacero Green Gasoline made from renewable natural gas and captured flare gas.
Key elements of the facility include:
- CO2 capture
- Integrated solar power generation
- Renewable power procurement
- Renewable natural gas
- Beneficial use for flared natural gas
- Hydrogen co-production
renewable natural gas
Can be made by gasifying algae
Posted by: SJC | 18 February 2022 at 09:49 PM
I notice that the "renewable" (which the energy inputs may be, but the manufactured inputs are not) energy in this scheme is only used to power carbon capture; none of it goes to operate the methane-to-X process.
To the extent that the carbon capture can operate on as-available power, that may actually be a good use for it. It certainly beats injecting unreliable power into the broader electric grid and destabilizing it.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | 20 February 2022 at 02:21 AM