The Port of Corpus Christi Authority (Port of Corpus Christi) and Howard Midstream Energy Partners, LLC (Howard/HEP) have executed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) stating their intention to convert Howard’s Javelina refinery services facility into the region’s first blue hydrogen production facility.

Howard’s Javelina facility is strategically positioned in the Port of Corpus Christi with pipeline connectivity to all six of the local refineries. Javelina controls approximately sixty million cubic feet per day (MMcf/d) of hydrogen production through a combination of hydrogen entrained in the refineries’ waste gas that the facility processes, and hydrogen produced through a steam methane reformer process. Methane (CH₄) is in abundance at the Port of Corpus Christi due to direct connections to the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford Shale production fields.

Javelina is a treating and fractionation plant that extracts olefins, hydrogen, and natural gas liquids (NGLs) from the gas streams produced by local refineries, creating purity products that are then sold to local markets on behalf of its refiner-customers. Howard closed on the purchase of Javelina in February of this year.

This hydrogen is currently sold back to refineries and other industries where it is used to remove impurities such as sulfur during the refining process. The Port of Corpus Christi and Howard ultimately hope to scale hydrogen production for exports to overseas demand centers.

According to the MOU, Howard intends to capture its carbon emissions at Javelina, avoiding atmospheric release which contributes to global warming. The parties will collaborate to identify uses for the residual CO₂ as well as capture and storage options. Captured CO₂ can be directed to industries that require it for production, such as steel, or that assimilate it, such as cement.

The Port of Corpus Christi says that it is uniquely suited to become the nation’s premier carbon capture and sequestration management hub based on the high density of industrial CO₂ emitters, a robust network of existing pipeline infrastructure, and the Port Authority’s ownership of lands leading to state waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

Academics from the University of Texas at Austin have mapped the geology of the Texas Gulf Coast and have determined this region is suited for injection and storage of pressurized CO₂. The Port of Corpus Christi has committed to developing much needed infrastructure to collect and pressurize CO₂ for injection in permanent geological storage formations offshore in the Gulf of Mexico.

As a leader in US crude oil export ports and a major economic engine of Texas and the nation, Port of Corpus Christi is the largest port in the United States in total revenue tonnage. Strategically located on the western Gulf of Mexico with a 36-mile, soon to be 54-foot MLLW (Mean Lower Low Water) deep channel, Port of Corpus Christi is a major gateway to international and domestic maritime commerce. The Port has excellent railroad and highway network connectivity via three North American Class-1 railroads and two major interstate highways.

San Antonio-based Howard Midstream Energy Partners, LLC d/b/a Howard Energy Partners is an independent midstream energy company, owning and operating natural gas and crude oil gathering and transportation pipelines, natural gas processing plants, liquid storage terminals, deep-water dock and terminal facilities, rail, terminal and transloading facilities and other related midstream assets in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Mexico. The company has corporate offices in San Antonio, Houston and Monterrey, Mexico.