Petra Nova Post-Combustion Carbon Capture Sequestration Project
Thompsons, Texas         
Award of Merit

Owner: Petra Nova Parish Holdings LLC (NRG Energy Inc. and JX Nippon Oil & Gas Exploration Corp.)
Lead Design Firm: Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America Inc.
General Contractor: TIC – The Industrial Co.
BOP Engineer: Kiewit Engineering
Owner’s Engineer: Sargent & Lundy

Within about two years, construction teams successfully retrofitted an existing power-generation station into the world’s largest post-combustion carbon-capture facility to be installed on an existing coal-fueled power plant.

Petra Nova will capture more than 90% of CO2 from a 240-MW-equivalent slipstream of flue gas for the use and ultimate sequestration of 1.6 million tons of CO2 annually.

The project team overcame numerous challenges, including transportation logistics for extra-large equipment, such as a CO2 compressor and regenerator.

Before setting foot on site, each of the more than 1,000 workers were required to attend a 10-hour orientation session. Advanced work packaging and detailed planning helped the contractor stay on the early curve of the schedule, leaving extra time for start-up operations to deliver the project on time. Teams worked 1.8 million man-hours with no lost time and an OSHA recordable rate of 0.86.

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