The long-delayed Summit Power Group’s Texas Clean Energy Project (TCEP) has again gone back to the drawing board (GM Jan. 8, p. 1) to refashion its plans for the its coal gasification plant planned for Odessa, Texas. TCEP has now dropped electricity from the product mix. The project was initially to use coal and produce urea, electricity, CO2, and a small amount of sulfuric acid.
The company has confirmed that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has pulled funding from the project, and TCEP is now looking at a product mix that is more likely to attract additional investment. DOE had previously warned TCEP about missing project deadlines (GM Sept. 21, 2015). Electricity can be cut from the project now as its production was a DOE requirement.
TCEP hopes to finalize its plans in first-quarter 2017 and be ready to break ground in midyear.
TCEP told the Odessa Development Corp. Dec. 8 that one option under consideration is to double the current urea capacity from the original plan of 760,000 st/y. The company sees increased urea production as a way to attract additional investors. Currently, United Suppliers Inc., Ames, Iowa, has an offtake agreement for the urea from the plant (GM Sept. 21, 2015), however, whether that will continue is reportedly up for negotiation. TCEP confirmed that an agreement made long ago for Shrieve Chemical Co., The Woodlands, Texas, to take the approximate 50,000 st/y of sulfuric acid from the plant has expired (GM Oct. 28, 2011).
TCEP told Green Markets that major contractors and technology providers remain onboard (GM Jan. 8, p. 1). Those included engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contracts with SNC-Lavalin Engineers & Constructors Inc. and China Huanqui Contracting & Engineering Corp. (HQC).
TCEP was before the ODC to request that its land deal for its 600-acre site near Odessa be extended another year. ODC approved the extension, but asked that TCEP give it another update in six months.
ODC Chairman Richard Browning expressed “fatigue” with the project’s long delay. While it has been in the works for some eight years, ODC members wanted to proceed if there was any chance it would succeed, according to the Odessa American. Had ODC denied the land extension, TCEP would have been required to pay some $480,000 to retain the land. Should the plant be completed, ODC has promised TCEP a $5 million incentive.
DOE was to pay TCEP up to $450 million from a 2010 award, which comprised funds from both the Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) and the America Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).
The TCEP project is expected to use some 1.5 million st/y of coal. Former Governor Rick Perry, who has been nominated to head up the DOE, has been supportive of the TCEP project, and President-elect Trump campaigned on a platform of helping the coal industry.
Backers of Hydrogen Energy California (HECA), a similar coal/petroleum coke-to-electricity/fertilizer project planned for California, pulled the plug on their project earlier this year (GM March 4, p. 15), citing fears it would not receive adequate federal funding to continue with the project.