Freeport Plant

In June 2008, Hunton Energy submitted an air permit application to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to build a $2.4 billion gasification plant in Freeport, Texas.

The site for the proposed plant was recently relocated to take advantage of deep water, electrical transmission and natural gas infrastructure. The new location is adjacent to the Dow Chemical Oyster Creek Facility. The Freeport plant will use a gasification process to convert petroleum coke into Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG), which will be sold to Dow Chemical. The plant will also use steam turbines to produce additional power from its byproduct steam. Hunton Energy plans to sell all CO2 emissions produced in the gasification process to a CO2 consolidator for sequestration in oil and gas fields. The plant is expected to be operational in 2012.

On March 4, 2009, the TCEQ issued a final air permit for the Freeport plant.

In February 2012, the Sierra Club reported that Hunton Energy had not been able to finalize an agreement with Dow Chemical and would no longer pursue the plant.

Project Details
Sponsor: Hunton Energy Location: Freeport TX Capacity: Type: Gasification (petroleum coke to Synthetic Natural Gas) Projected in service: 2012 Status: Cancelled 2012

Citizen Groups

 * Sustainable Energy & Economic Development Coalition, Karen Hadden, karen [at] seedcoalition.org
 * Texas Sierra Club, Neil Carman, neil_carman [at] greenbuilder.com
 * Texas Public Citizen, jcarraway [at] citizen.org

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Carbon Capture and Storage demonstration projects worldwide
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 * Coal plant litigation
 * Texas and coal
 * United States and coal
 * Carbon Capture and Storage
 * Existing U.S. Coal Plants
 * US proposed coal plants (both active and cancelled)
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2007
 * Coal plants cancelled in 2008
 * State-by-state guide to information on coal in the United States (or click on the map)