ExxonMobil Corp said on Thursday it has begun design studies for its carbon capture storage (CCS) hub in southeast Australia, similar to its project in Houston, Texas, to reduce emissions from industries in the Gippsland Basin, reported Reuters.
The CCS hub would use existing infrastructure to store carbon dioxide in the depleted Bream field off the coast of Gippsland in the state of Victoria, the US energy major said.
CCS traps emissions and buries them underground but is not at the commercialisation stage yet.
Exxon said it is in discussions with local emissions-intensive industries which may be interested in availing the hub to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their operations.
The largest US oil producer is also planning on a hydrogen production plant and a CCS project at its Baytown refinery near Houston, Texas, in an effort to reduce its carbon footprint while earning a profit.
The carbon capture infrastructure for the Australian project would have the capacity to store up to two million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year and could be operational by 2025 if technical and business feasibility is confirmed, Exxon said.
As MRC reported earlier, last month, ExxonMobil announced that construction of the new linear alpha olefins (LAO) manufacturing unit at its Baytown, Texas, integrated petrochemical complex is progressing and targeting commercial start up in mid-2023. When fully operational, the new facility will have the capacity to produce approximately 350,000 metric tons of LAO annually.
We remind that in February, 2022, ExxonMobil and SABIC successful started up Gulf Coast Growth Ventures world-scale manufacturing facility in San Patricio County, Texas. The new facility will produce materials used in packaging, agricultural film, construction materials, clothing, and automotive coolants. The operation includes a 1.8 MM metric tpy ethane steam cracker, two polyethylene (PE) units capable of producing up to 1.3 MM metric tpy, and a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit with a capacity of 1.1 MM metric tpy.
Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.
According to MRC''s ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas.shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
MRC