Turning Natural Gas Into Gasoline

Nacero has awarded Bechtel the front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract for the first natural gas-to-gasoline manufacturing facility in the United States. Nacero’s 115,000 barrel per day (bpd) plant in Penwell, Texas, will be the first gasoline manufacturing plant in the world to incorporate carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), and 100% renewable power.

Houston-based Nacero will build the US$7 billion manufacturing facility in two phases. Phase one will produce 70,000 bpd of gasoline component (ready for blending). Phase two will increase that capacity to 100,000 bpd. The gasoline produced at the facility will contain no sulfur and have half the lifecycle carbon footprint of traditional gasoline. The gasoline will be made from a combination of natural gas, captured biomethane, and mitigated flare gas.

All of the plant’s electricity will come from renewable sources, much of which will be produced on-site from solar panels co-located with the manufacturing facilities on Nacero’s 2600-acre site. The plant will be the first in the United States to make gasoline from natural gas and the first in the world to do so with CCS. Sequestered carbon dioxide will be transported via an existing onsite pipeline.