Chevron Announces New Collaboration on Bioenergy Plant

In early March, Chevron Corporation announced that it will be partnering with Microsoft, oilfield services firm Schlumberger New Energy, and privately held developer Clean Energy Systems to construct a bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration (BECCS) project. The BECCS plant will be built in Mendota, California with the goal of producing carbon-negative power in the city. The announcement comes soon after the decision by the California Air Resources Control Board to begin phasing out almost all agricultural burning in the Central Valley by 2025.
 
The plant will convert agricultural waste biomass into a renewable synthetic gas that is mixed with oxygen in a combustor to generate electricity. This bioenergy technology is designed to operate “without routine emissions of nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide, and particulates from combustion produced by conventional biomass plants.” The carbon dioxide (CO2) that is produced will be captured and injected underground into deep geologic formations for permanent storage. It is estimated that the completed plant will remove 300,000 tons of CO2 annually—equivalent to the emissions (from electricity use) of more than 65,000 U.S. homes.
 
Chevron anticipates that the project will create 300 construction jobs and 30 permanent jobs once the plant is operating. Engineering and design work on the plant will begin immediately with a final investment decision coming in 2022. For more information, see the press release from Chevron here.