Saudi Arabia to be Site of World's Largest CO2 Purification, Liquefaction Plant

Jubail Industrial City, Saudi Arabia will be the site of the world’s largest carbon dioxide (CO2) purification and liquefaction plant. 

The Linde Group announced last week that it will built this plant, which will be designed to compress and purify around 1,500 tons per day of raw carbon dioxide coming from two nearby ethylene glycol plants, for Jubail United Petrochemical Co., a manufacturing affiliate of SABIC (Saudi Basic Industries Corporation).

The purified gaseous CO2 will be pipelined through the piping corridor of the Royal Commission of Jubail to three SABIC-affiliated companies for enhanced methanol and urea production. Methanol is a basic commodity for the chemical industry and urea is used for fertilizer production. An estimated 500,000 tons of CO2 emissions will be saved each year.

The reduction of CO2 emissions is an important aim in both SABIC's and Linde’s sustainability strategy.

The plant will also be capable of producing 200 tons per day of liquid CO2 with food grade quality which will be stored and supplied by truck to the beverage and food industry.

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US Nuclear Plant Shuts Down as Can't Compete with Natural Gas

WASHINGTON -- A 40-year-old nuclear plant in Vermont will shut down next year due to the high costs of competing with cheap natural gas, the company said Tuesday.

Entergy Corp. said the Vermont Yankee plant, which employed some 600 people and was licensed to operate until 2032, will be decommissioned after its current fuel cycle ends.

"This was an agonizing decision and an extremely tough call for us," said Leo Denault, Entergy's CEO.

"We have reluctantly concluded that it is the appropriate action for us to take under the circumstances."

The Louisiana-based Entergy said the move was based on "a number of financial factors," and noted it had poured $400 million into the plant's operations since 2002.

The top reason cited by the company was "a natural gas market that has undergone a transformational shift in supply due to the impacts of shale gas, resulting in sustained low natural gas prices and wholesale energy prices."

The company also pointed to "wholesale market design flaws" that lead to "artificially low" energy prices in the region.

The plant's end of operations, or safe shutdown, was set for the fourth quarter of 2014, the company said.

Vermont Yankee is a single unit boiling water reactor that began operating in 1972. Entergy acquired the plant from Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corporation in 2002.

Closures of nuclear plants in the United States -- where nuclear energy provides 20% of the electricity -- are rare.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2013

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