Japan's INPEX Corporation has announced that it will use the HiPACT® high-pressure CO2 capture technology developed by BASF and JGC Corporation.
The application is part of the Kashiwazaki Clean Hydrogen/Ammonia project. This is what is claimed to be the first pilot project for the production of blue hydrogen and ammonia in Japan from locally produced natural gas. It enables the implementation of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in regional depleted gas fields and the use of hydrogen for power generation and ammonia production.
The project is funded by the Japanese government's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).
Gas fields serve as CO2 storage
HiPACT technology is used to capture and recover CO2 from the process gas of a hydrogen production plant. The feedstock is domestic natural gas. The production plant is located in the Hirai area of the city of Kashiwazaki in Niigata Prefecture. It is being built by JGC Japan Corporation and is scheduled to come on stream in 2025.
The recovered CO2 will be injected into the reservoirs of the exploited gas fields, using CCUS technologies for enhanced gas recovery. Due to HiPACT's heat resistance and CO2 capture performance, the technology is expected to reduce CO2 capture and compression costs by up to 35% compared to conventional technologies by releasing the CO2 off-gas above atmospheric pressure.
BASF markets gas treatment technologies for natural gas, syngas, flue gas and biogas under the OASE brand. HiPACT is a solution for the treatment of natural gas and syngas with CCS or CO2 enhanced l-oil/gas recovery.
