TriGen proposes profitable way of decarbonising gas and oil

Writing in Innovation News Network, TriGen CEO Pieter Kapteijn has outlined an economically viable strategy whereby gas and oil production can be decarbonised.

Kapteijn begins by pointing out that targets to limit global warming are becoming increasingly unachievable:

“Even remaining below 2 °C will require annual global emissions to fall by another 15 – 20 Gt CO2e by 2050. One option that deserves serious consideration is the integration of gas and oil assets with Pressurised Oxy-Fuel (POF) power generation to create economically viable, low-emission energy systems.”

TriGen proposes a two-stage approach based on combining POF with the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), which is an established, proven technology. For example, ExxonMobil, the maker of the Mobil Pegasus gas engine oil, started injecting CO2 at the Means San Andres project in 1983. The main barrier is efficiently collecting CO2, but POF power generation produces only CO2 and steam, which can be separated easily.

The first phase involves using gas fields of a lower quality to fuel POF generation to supply clean energy for operations and grid systems. The captured CO2 emissions from this are then injected into an oil field for permanent storage while enhancing recovery.

The second phase goes a step further by using hydrocarbons exclusively for POF fuel generation. In a circular, closed-loop system, the CO2 produced from combusting the hydrocarbons is injected back into the original reservoirs. This would result in virtually all emissions being avoided.

Kapteijn claims this could avoid a large portion of emissions if deployed at scale by the middle of the century.

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