Air Products Port Arthur CCS

Air Products’ Port Arthur facility in Texas hosts one of the world’s first commercial-scale carbon capture systems applied to steam methane reforming (SMR) hydrogen production. Developed under the U.S. DOE Industrial Carbon Capture and Storage program, the project retrofitted two hydrogen plants at the Valero refinery to capture CO₂ from hydrogen production off-gas using vacuum swing adsorption separation technology. Carbon capture operations began in late 2012 and reached full operation in 2013, targeting recovery of approximately 1 million tonnes of CO₂ per year at ~97% purity. Captured CO₂ is compressed and transported via the Denbury Green Pipeline for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR), representing one of the earliest large-scale examples of blue hydrogen with integrated CCS. By 2016 the project had captured over 3 million tonnes of CO₂, and by 2017 more than 4 million tonnes had been transported for storage and utilization, demonstrating sustained industrial-scale operation and providing key lessons for hydrogen decarbonization retrofits globally.