INTERVIEW: US Enterprise eyes carbon capture, hydrogen, plastic waste

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Enterprise Products’ sustainability strategy is coalescing around carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen and plastic waste – all in ways that take advantage of its existing midstream businesses, the co-CEO of the US-based company said.

Enterprise’s Evolutionary Technology team is charged with mapping out its sustainability strategy.

“We don’t use the word ‘transition’. We use the word ‘evolution’. We are not going to transition away from hydrocarbons,” said Jim Teague, co-CEO. He made his comments in an interview with ICIS. “We are going to add other sources of energy. We believe the world is going to need ‘all of the above’.”

CARBON CAPTURE
One area of focus is carbon capture and sequestration.

Recently, Enterprise and Chevron said the two will study opportunities for carbon capture, utilisation and storage.

For any actual carbon capture and sequestration project, Teague said it is too early to provide a timeline.

“First of all, we have got to figure out does it make money,” he said.

Teague brought up the need for a price on carbon. Policy makers have discussed tax credits, but Enterprise would prefer direct pay.

Under direct pay, companies would receive payments, not tax credits.

“I think it is going to take a while for this to evolve into a business. We are doing the legwork and research and we are visiting with companies to see if it ultimately works,” Teague said. “I think ultimately, it will become a business at Enterprise.”

Two potential opportunities are well permits and pipelines.

Shipping large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) for storage will require pipelines, a core part of Enterprise. The company had 50,000 miles (80,500 km) of pipelines.

“We understand how to build pipelines,” Teague said. “We understand how to repurpose pipelines.”

Teague also sees opportunities in permits for sequestration wells.

“I think a permit is going to have value in and of itself,” Teague said. It takes time and effort to obtain such permits.

PLASTIC WASTE
A second area is plastic waste.

Enterprise is a member of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), a group made up of several companies that is seeking to end plastic waste.

Teague does not expect Enterprise will recycle plastics, but it could transport pyrolysis oil, the main product of many of the chemical-recycling processes being developed. It is similar to naphtha, which many crackers use to make ethylene and other basic petrochemicals.

“We are already moving pyrolysis oil for a big petrochemical company via truck,” Teague said. “There is nothing that says we couldn’t do it with pipeline.”

HYDROGEN
A third area of focus is hydrogen.

Enterprise already produces hydrogen as a co-product of its dehydrogenation operations.

The company has propane dehydrogenation (PDH) and isobutane dehydrogenation (iBDH) operations. It has plans to start up a second PDH unit in the second quarter of 2023.

Enterprise plans to modify the heaters of that second PDH unit to burn hydrogen instead of natural gas. Such a move will reduce the unit’s carbon emissions by nearly 90%.

The hydrogen from Enterprise’s existing PDH unit is under contract. But as those contracts expire, the hydrogen would become available for internal use.

Interview article by Al Greenwood