(Jeff Beach – North Dakota Monitor) – The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality has approved the final permits for a major natural gas processing plant in northwest North Dakota.
In December, the Department of Environmental Quality issued a pollution discharge permit and the agency’s Division of Air Quality approved a construction permit for the Cerilon GTL North Dakota plant near Trenton in Williams County.
GTL stands for gas-to-liquids. Cerilon GTL North Dakota will be the first large-scale, natural gas-fed facility in North America, according to the Canada-based company. The $3.2 billion plant will convert natural gas into more valuable industrial products, such as lubricants, while also producing electricity.
The facility will discharge an average of 400,000 gallons per day of treated wastewater into the Missouri River, according to Department of Environmental Quality documents.
“We’ve designed the project with a focus on minimizing impacts on both the community and the environment and have worked hard to meet the state’s high expectations. Receiving this final major permit means we’ve successfully delivered on a project design that meets or exceeds these expectations,” Ron Opperman, CEO of Cerilon GTL, said in a news release.
It will also feature carbon capture and sequestration, making it the lowest carbon footprint gas-to-liquids facility, the company said.
The carbon sequestration location has yet to be determined, Cerilon said in an email to the North Dakota Monitor. It is working with the Energy and Environmental Research Center in Grand Forks to identify a possible sequestration site.
A second facility of the same scale also is planned at the Trenton site.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission approved a site permit for Cerilon in September.
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