Carson Hydrogen Power Plant
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Carson Hydrogen Power Plant |
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BP and GE Plan Multi-Billion Dollar Clean Hydrogen Power Plants7/20/06 John Addison BP and GE on July 18, 2006, announced plans to jointly develop and deploy 10 to 15 hydrogen power plants that dramatically reduce emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from electricity generation. Vivienne Cox, BP’s Chief Executive of Gas, Power and Renewables, and David L. Calhoun, Vice Chairman of GE and president and CEO of GE Infrastructure, signed the agreement. These electric power plants are clean alternatives to coal, nuclear and natural gas power plants. Each plant is likely to require an investment of $1 billion and create a new use of hydrogen – generating electricity on a large scale. BP and GE will collaborate on power, carbon capture and sequestration technologies. Prior to this major announcement, BP had already announced plans for two such hydrogen power projects with carbon capture and sequestration in Scotland and California, both of which will use GE technology. In California, BP and Edison plan to invest $1 billion for a large scale plant in Carson near BP’s current oil-refining operations that heavily use hydrogen to produce cleaner, high-octane gasoline. As a byproduct, the plant is likely to be a low-cost source of hydrogen fuel for the hundreds of hydrogen cars and buses already on the road in California. The planned 500-MW hydrogen-fueled power plant in Carson, near Los Angeles, would increase use of hydrogen in California by 2 million metric tons per year. Petroleum coke produced at California refineries would first be converted to hydrogen and CO2 gases, then 90% of the CO2 would be captured and separated. BP and Edison Mission Group, hope to complete detailed engineering and commercial studies for the Carson project in 2006, finalize project investment decisions in 2008 and bring the new power plant online by 2011. Once operational, the Carson project would produce 500MW of low-carbon electricity, enough to power around 325,000 southern California homes. The facility would also capture and permanently store about 4 million tones of CO2 a year. Final project investment decisions will follow further study by the partners and review by the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District. BP and Edison are beginning project discussions with state and federal government agencies and local stakeholders and are exploring options for selling the electricity the plant would generate. BP is in discussions with Occidental Petroleum to develop options for sequestering the CO2 in Occidental's California oilfields. The costs of hydrogen power are higher than those of traditional power plant fuels. As a result, the project will depend, in part, on incentives provided in the Federal Energy Policy Act of 2005 for advanced gasification technologies. In addition, continued progress on the California Public Utilities Commission's electricity "resource adequacy" procurement policies. The hydrogen gas stream would be used to fuel a gas turbine to generate electricity. The captured CO2 would be transported by pipeline to an oilfield and injected into reservoir rock formations thousands of feet underground, both stimulating additional oil production and permanently trapping the CO2. Refineries in the South Bay and Harbor Area create about 17,000 tons of petroleum coke a day during the production of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, officials said. The BP-Edison project would consume about 5,000 tons of coke per day, according to Ted Craver, CEO of the Edison Mission Group The coke is currently shipped to Asia, where it is burned as a fuel producing much greater CO2 emissions than planned in the future plant. The hydrogen power plant, planned for Peterhead, Scotland, would use natural gas Such low carbon power projects use fossil fuels such as natural gas, petroleum coke or coal for power generation combined with carbon dioxide capture and storage technology. They generate significant quantities of base-load power while capturing and storing some 90% of the carbon dioxide that would otherwise be emitted, in deep geological formations. David Calhoun of GE, “This initiative will demonstrate that our companies’ leading-edge technologies can make hydrogen production efficient, reliable, and economical for large-scale, commercial power production. Our financial strength will ensure it happens now globally, changing the way we envision our energy future.” Subject to further exploration, BP and GE may create a joint venture to invest in hydrogen power projects and a joint development agreement for development of related technology. BP and GE will apply some of the world’s leading technologies, project experience and assets to optimize the integrated design. The collaborative effort will draw upon the companies’ technologies and experience in areas such as coal gasification, reforming technology, gas turbines and carbon capture and storage. “The combination of coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration is crucial for clean coal development and presents great opportunities for countries with substantial reserves of coal such as the USA, China and India,” says Lewis Gillies, BP’s Director of Hydrogen Power. If applied to just 5% of the new electricity-generating capacity that the world is projected to need by 2030, this combination of technologies could potentially reduce global CO2 emissions by over 500million tones of CO2 a year by 2030, equivalent to removing more than 100 million cars from the world’s roads. |
Copyright (c) 2006 OPTIMARK |
from North Sea fields to create hydrogen and CO2. The hydrogen would be used to generate 475MW (expanded from 350MW) of electricity, enough power for more than 700,000 UK homes while the CO2 would be transported offshore and injected more than three kilometers under the seabed into the Miller field reservoir, potentially extending its life by 15-20 years. The project would also capture and permanently store 1.8 million tones of CO2 each year. Scottish and Southern Energy will partner with BP and GE in this plant.