Mississippi Gasification

Mississippi Gasification (MG), a subsidiary of Leucadia National Corporation, is developing a syngas plant in Moss Point, Mississippi that will utilize petroleum coke feedstock to produce pipeline gas. Syngas from the project will be sold under long-term (30 year) contracts to utilities in the region. The complex would utilize approximately 115 acres of floodplains and wetlands, which are currently undergoing remediation for past contamination from the paper mill previously located on the site. MG has executed a feedstock procurement and supply contract and has begun preliminary engineering and design work. Construction is expected to begin in 2011 and commercial operations in 2015.

Construction is expected to start in 2012 with the plant being operational by 2015. Leucadia announced in its 2009 annual report that they "face the risk that long-term natural gas prices will remain too low to make the projects feasible." As of 2011, no permits have been filed with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality or the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.

Funding
The project has received loan coverage of $1.689 billion under the U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Policy Act of 2005.

Proposal
The plant would convert an estimated 7,000 tons of petroleum coke per day into 120 million cubic feet of substitute natural gas (SNG) or methanol, and other ancillary gasses. Byproducts created during the syngas process, sulfur and carbon dioxide, will be sold. The sulfur would be used to make sulfuric acid, used by companies such as nearby fertilizer producer Mississippi Phosphates. The plant would generate an estimated 500,000 tons of sulfuric acid a year. Proposed carbon dioxide captured from the project will be sold under a long-term contract for use in existing enhanced oil recovery operations in the area. The plant would sell its carbon dioxide, a projected 4 million tons per year, to Texas-based Denbury Resources, an oil and gas company that uses carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Mississippi 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)