ExxonMobil has filed an application to develop a $262 million carbon dioxide disposal well in Wyoming.

The proposed project would expand an existing ExxonMobil facility that prepares for commercial sale a carbon dioxide (CO2) stream from nearby natural gas production wells. Construction on the disposal site could start in the third quarter of 2020 and be completed by the end of 2022. The proposed well and an associated pipeline would be located on land owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

According to a nearly 400-page application filed in mid-January with the Wyoming Industrial Siting Council, the Shute Creek Treating Facility currently receives around 65% of its inlet gas stream from produced wells some 40 miles northwest of the plant.

Of that gas stream, around two-thirds is separated and compressed for sale to customers. Another 4.5% is injected along with hydrogen sulfide (H2S) into the two acid gas injection wells. And finally, about 15% of the inlet CO2 is combined with hydrogen and used as fuel gas for three cogeneration turbines.

The remaining CO2 is considered to be low-pressure, low-quality CO2 and is vented to the atmosphere. The proposed carbon capture project would receive the currently vented CO2 and compress it either to sales quality or for injection into rock formations for long-term storage.

Facilities to be built to support the injection plant would include low-pressure compressors, Selexol transfer pumps, ethylene glycol cooling system, triethylene glycol dehydration unit, an H2S scavenging unit and a power distribution center.

Additional equipment to transport dense-phase CO2 to the injection well also would be installed at the nearby Shute Creek CO2 Sales Compression site. At that CO2 compression site, new equipment would include a high-pressure compressor, CO2 injection pump, injection pump discharge coolers and a power distribution center.

Dense-phase CO2 from the injection pump discharge would be transported through a 9 mile long, 10 in pipeline. The injection well's surface equipment would include a wellhead and metering building, as well as an instrumentation safety system designed to protect personnel and the environment.