Honeywell bets on UT carbon-capture technology

Honeywell has licensed a solvent developed by University of Texas chemical engineers they say will make it more affordable to capture carbon dioxide from power plants and heavy industry before it reaches the atmosphere.

The new solvent will enable companies to use smaller carbon-capture equipment, said Gary Rochelle, a chemical engineering professor at UT Austin who has worked more than 20 years to develop the chemical. That will make it cheaper for companies and facilities to employ carbon capture, and Rochelle said he hopes that will help lead to wider adoption of carbon-capture technology.

“It’s robust and resistant to oxidation and degradation,” Rochelle said. “You can use it at higher temperatures and pressures, and it reduces energy consumption by 10 to 20 percent.”

Rochelle and other researchers tested the new solvent at the University of Texas’ small power plant, which produces about 200 kilowatts of power from coal, and at the National Carbon Capture Center in Alabama, which produces 500 kilowatts. Twice that amount, 1 megawatt, is about enough electricity to power about 200 homes on a hot summer day.

But if it were deployed at an average-size power plant, which produces about 685 megawatts, the advanced solvent’s carbon-capture technology could siphon about 3.4 million tons of carbon dioxide annually, about the same emissions produced by 735,000 cars each year.

It can also be used in a much wider array of industries, said Ben Owens, vice president and general manager at Honeywell Sustainable Technology Solutions.

“We’ve gotten a lot of interest from the cement industry and other verticals, like oil, gas and petrochemical,” he said. “Everyone we’re talking to is really evaluating how they can reduce their carbon footprint, so there’s a lot of engagement on this space.”

Honeywell has yet to ink a deal to install the new equipment and use the new solvent in a real-world application, but Owens expected the first deals to be announced in the coming weeks.

He could not estimate how much it would cost a company to install the smaller machinery that uses the new solvent because it would vary by facility. But, he said, a company’s existing carbon-capture equipment could be retrofitted to use the new parts, and doing so could save them money in the long wrong.

“Attributes of the solvent allow equipment to be smaller-sized and ultimately relieves capital costs of deploying this technology,” he said. “That’s why we see it as a game changer.”

—Shelby Webb

W&T Offshore boosts holdings in the Gulf

W&T Offshore plans to buy shallow-water oil and natural gas assets in the Gulf of Mexico for $47 million.

The all-cash purchase from privately held Ankor E&P Holdings and KOA Energy will give W&T 53 producing wells with proven reserves of 5.5 million barrels of oil and natural gas. The all-cash deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter.

“Acquisitions are a core component of how we create value at W&T and this transaction is another great example of an acquisition that adds value for our stockholders,” CEO Tracy Krohn said. “The current environment for acquisitions in the Gulf of Mexico continues to be very good and we are well positioned to pursue additional attractive opportunities that present themselves.”

W&T said it was attracted to these Gulf of Mexico wells because they are located near their existing wells and won’t require significant costs to boost production. Krohn said he believes W&T will be able to leverage its scale and expertise to “maximize the value of these assets,” which also include 16 offshore facilities.

The deal increases W&T’s shallow water acreage by 46,000 net acres in the central region of the Gulf of Mexico, which contains proven and probable oil and gas reserves of 7.6 million barrels. These wells currently produce 2,500 barrels of oil per day and 5.4 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.

W&T has working interests in 41 producing fields in federal and state waters and has 611,000 gross acres of leases in the shallow and deep waters of the Gulf.

—Paul Takahashi