Environmental Groups Praise Hunton Energy

Hunton Energy’s Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) plant, announced December 13, 2007, is winning praise from a cross-section of business, government and environmental leaders.

“This is a very exciting project,” says Jim Marston, the State Climate Initiatives Director of Environmental Defense, who led a well-publicized fight earlier this year against conventional power plants proposed by TXU. “Using gasification to produce synthetic natural gas is innovative in itself, but Hunton is increasing the efficiency of the facility in a dramatic way by using heat that would otherwise be wasted to make steam.” Marston complimented Dow leaders for their active participation in this project, adding: “I like people who think outside the box while finding ways to save money and reduce emissions at the same time.”

The Hunton Energy SNG project at Dow Chemical’s Oyster Creek facility in Texas is slated to produce 180 million cubic feet per day of SNG, and will use steam turbines to generate additional power from its byproduct steam. Innovative processes in Hunton’s gasification system will capture 100% of the CO2 emissions from the facility, which will be the equivalent size of a 1200-megawatt power plant.

“This agreement with Hunton Energy is an example of how Dow is pursuing diverse sources of energy as part of our overall strategy to mitigate rising feedstock and energy costs,” said Rich Wells, vice president of Energy for Dow Chemical. “As an added benefit, the process used to produce the steam consumed by Dow will capture CO2 emissions to be sold for enhanced oil recovery use. By switching from our site-produced steam to this new technology offered by Hunton, we will be reducing Dow’s CO2 emissions in Freeport and thereby reinforcing our publicly stated Climate Change sustainability goal to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20 percent by 2015.”

Every byproduct from the plant is captured or used. Synthetic natural gas (SNG) will be manufactured by reacting pure oxygen with petroleum coke and biomass (wood chips, rice hulls etc) to produce syngas (CO, H2, H2S, and CO2) and vitrified (glassy) slag. The syngas will be subsequently converted into methane (SNG) and three byproducts: sulfur (liquid), high purity CO2 and slag.

“Our vision from the beginning has been to validate gasification as the next generation of energy production and in doing so take a major step towards U.S. energy independence,” says R.O. Hunton, Chairman of Hunton Energy.

“I am excited about the prospects of this project coming to Brazoria County,” says Texas State Rep. Dennis Bonnen (R-Angleton), Chairman of the House Environmental Regulation Committee. “It demonstrates many of the desirable characteristics that I and others in the Texas Legislature believe is the future of cleaner energy in Texas. When private and public companies like Hunton and Dow can come together and basically build what the federal government envisioned in Future Gen, it is a testimony to these companies and the market-based incentives I helped put in place with HB 2994.”

“The Hunton Freeport Facility is a breakthrough energy project that environmentalists and energy independence proponents have been demanding for years,” says Richard Hunton, Jr., Senior Vice President of Hunton Energy and COO of The Hunton Group. “This process can also be fueled by coal in the same clean fashion and will allow the U.S. to use an abundant natural resource to further our goals for energy independence.”

“The Hunton Energy project at Dow’s Freeport facility is an important development for our nation’s economy and environment,” says Corbin Robertson, CEO of Natural Resources Partners. “The United States has vast coal reserves that can be used to produce clean gas, power, steam and chemicals to fuel our economy and preserve a healthy environment.”

State Senator Kip Averitt (R-Waco), Chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources said, “I’ve been impressed by the private sector’s ability to provide innovative solutions to many of the problems we face, and this project embodies many of the ultra-clean energy concepts we sought to incentivize through a bill I sponsored and helped pass this past session.”

Ground-breaking for the gasification plant, located at Dow Chemical’s Oyster Creek facility in Freeport, Texas, is estimated to be in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Hunton Energy is an independent energy producer committed to gasification and clean energy generation. Pioneering new technologies and processes, Hunton brings innovation to the forefront of alternative energy generation.