Texas operator proposes building grassroots decarbonized refinery
Prairie Energy Partners LLC, a subsidiary of Southern Rock Energy Partners LLC, El Campo, Tex., is in the process of site selection for its proposed construction of a grassroots, full-conversion, decarbonized refinery to process US-produced light, sweet conventional and shale crudes into low-carbon transportation fuels.
As of Oct. 10, Prairie Energy Partners was working to finalize a location for the planned $5.56-billion refinery on a site in either Victoria County, Tex., or Payne and Lincoln County, Okla., Southern Rock Energy Partners said.
To be built on a reduced footprint of only 400 acres, the proposed refinery would be equipped to process West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and sweet shale crudes sourced from the Eagle Ford, Permian, DJ, and Bakken basins into 91.25 million bbl/year of clean finished products, including gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, according to the operator.
The proposed decarbonized refining complex also would be outfitted with technologies and processes capable of reducing and eliminating 95% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—including carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrogen oxide, and sulfur oxide—as well as for reducing water production and consumption by 90%, with 80% of waste water further recycled and repurposed, the company said.
Unlike most conventional refineries that power process heating units with natural gas, Prairie Energy Partners’ planned refinery would instead combine pure oxygen with blue hydrogen (produced from refinery offgases) and green hydrogen (from electrolysis) to yield a primary waste stream of steam.
Alongside including an associated carbon capture and storage (CCS) system for its hydrogen complex, the proposed refinery also would be powered by 100% renewable electricity, either sourced from the grid or generated on-site from recycled and repurposed waste heat or geothermal and solar assets.
Southern Rock Energy Partners said project plans also include construction of:
- A new bidirectional refined products pipeline connecting to nearby terminals.
- An 8-bay truck terminal.
- A 300-car rail terminal.
- A 4-barge marine terminal located at or near the project site.
Pending final investment decision and necessary permitting, Prairie Energy Partners intends to break ground on the project in 2023 for anticipated startup of the refining complex—which would create at least 1,250 temporary jobs during construction and 423 full-time jobs once operable—in 2025, according to Southern Rock Energy Partners.
Additional project details
In an August 2022 update to its original May 2022 application filed with Bloomington Independent School District of Victoria, Tex., for potential tax reductions on the project, Prairie Energy Partners said the 250,000-b/d decarbonized refinery would include the following major installations:
- A crude distillation unit consisting of two 125,000-b/d process trains.
- Naphtha, diesel hydrotreaters.
- Isomerization units.
- Continuous catalytic reformers (CCR).
- Hydrocrackers.
- Renewable diesel unit.
- Autothermal reforming (ATR)-based hydrogen complex and associated CCS complex.
- Water, waste-water production and recycling complex.
- On-site renewable-electricity production plant.
Robert Brelsford | Downstream Editor
Robert Brelsford joined Oil & Gas Journal in October 2013 as downstream technology editor after 8 years as a crude oil price and news reporter on spot crude transactions at the US Gulf Coast, West Coast, Canadian, and Latin American markets. He holds a BA (2000) in English from Rice University and an MS (2003) in education and social policy from Northwestern University.
