Hydrogen Energy California

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Hydrogen Energy California Facility Process

Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) was a proposed alternative energy hydrogen power project developing with support from the U.S. Department of Energy in Kern County, California which was not approved for construction. [1]

Contents

The facility would have converted coal and refinery waste into an impure hydrogen fuel to be used to generate electricity and fertilizer. [2] If it had become fully operational, it would have generated nearly 300MW of clean electricity and produced one million tons of locally manufactured, low-carbon fertilizer. [3] However, significant drawbacks and cost overruns eliminated support for the proposal. [4]

The facility was to be located on 542-acre (219 ha) of prime farmland in western Kern County, about 7 miles (11 km) west of Bakersfield and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) northwest of the unincorporated community of Tupman. The site was near the Elk Hills Oil Field where the captured CO2 was to be used for enhanced oil recovery by Occidental of Elk Hills, Inc. [5] It was expected to have employed an 2,000 union workers in temporary construction jobs and would have created approximately 200 permanent jobs. [6]

It was a project of SCS Energy LLC, an independent developer of clean power, [7] was cofunded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, and administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory. The project was awarded a $408 million grant by the U.S. Department of Energy under Clean Coal Power Initiative Round 3. [8]

Process

The HECA project would have been an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) facility using Mitsubishi's oxygen–blown gasifier technology [9] which generates power extremely efficiently with minimal emissions. [10] IGGC facilities differ from conventional fossil fueled power generation plants in that fossil fuels do not combust. Instead, a blend of recycled petroleum coke and coal are converted through gasification to manufacture hydrogen fuel. [11]

A Rectisol acid gas removal system was to have separated and captured more than ninety percent of the carbon dioxide (CO2) produced during the hydrogen manufacturing process. [12] [13] Most of the captured CO2 would then have been used for enhanced oil recovery at the nearby Elk Hills Oil Field. [14] Some of the CO2 would have been used to manufacture fertilizer. [15] Brackish groundwater would have served its process water needs in a Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) system [16] in order to protect and conserve local freshwater sources. [17]

Drawbacks

However, most of the clean electricity produced by HECA would have been consumed by the plant's own processes at the same time it would have produced over 500 tons of criteria air pollutants in an area that already has the worst air pollution in the United States. [18] [19]

Schedule

The project progressed through the regulatory approval process with the expectation that it would be completed and operational by 2017. [20] On March 4, 2016, the California Energy Commission ordered the HECA application to be terminated for lack of progress. [21] [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gasification</span> Form of energy conversion

Gasification is a process that converts biomass- or fossil fuel-based carbonaceous materials into gases, including as the largest fractions: nitrogen (N2), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen (H2), and carbon dioxide (CO2). This is achieved by reacting the feedstock material at high temperatures (typically >700 °C), without combustion, via controlling the amount of oxygen and/or steam present in the reaction. The resulting gas mixture is called syngas (from synthesis gas) or producer gas and is itself a fuel due to the flammability of the H2 and CO of which the gas is largely composed. Power can be derived from the subsequent combustion of the resultant gas, and is considered to be a source of renewable energy if the gasified compounds were obtained from biomass feedstock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FutureGen</span> Cancelled coal power station project

FutureGen was a project to demonstrate capture and sequestration of waste carbon dioxide from a coal-fired electrical generating station. The project (renamed FutureGen 2.0) was retrofitting a shuttered coal-fired power plant in Meredosia, Illinois, with oxy-combustion generators. The waste CO2 would be piped approximately 30 miles (48 km) to be sequestered in underground saline formations. FutureGen was a partnership between the United States government and an alliance of primarily coal-related corporations. Costs were estimated at US$1.65 billion, with $1.0 billion provided by the Federal Government.

In industrial chemistry, coal gasification is the process of producing syngas—a mixture consisting primarily of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen, carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapour —from coal and water, air and/or oxygen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Energy Technology Laboratory</span> United States research lab

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) is a U.S. national laboratory under the Department of Energy Office of Fossil Energy. NETL focuses on applied research for the clean production and use of domestic energy resources. It performs research and development on the supply, efficiency, and environmental constraints of producing and using fossil energy resources while maintaining affordability.

Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most common process chain is "Coal to Liquid Fuels" (CTL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthetic fuel</span> Fuel from carbon monoxide and hydrogen

Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reforming of natural gas.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon capture and storage</span> Collecting carbon dioxide from industrial emissions

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a process in which a relatively pure stream of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial sources is separated, treated and transported to a long-term storage location. For example, the carbon dioxide stream that is to be captured can result from burning fossil fuels or biomass. Usually the CO2 is captured from large point sources, such as a chemical plant or biomass plant, and then stored in an underground geological formation. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and thus mitigate climate change. The IPCC's most recent report on mitigating climate change describes CCS retrofits for existing power plants as one of the ways to limit emissions from the electricity sector and meet Paris Agreement goals.

Enhanced oil recovery, also called tertiary recovery, is the extraction of crude oil from an oil field that cannot be extracted otherwise. Although the primary and secondary recovery techniques rely on the pressure differential between the surface and the underground well, enhanced oil recovery functions by altering the chemical composition of the oil itself in order to make it easier to extract. EOR can extract 30% to 60% or more of a reservoir's oil, compared to 20% to 40% using primary and secondary recovery. According to the US Department of Energy, carbon dioxide and water are injected along with one of three EOR techniques: thermal injection, gas injection, and chemical injection. More advanced, speculative EOR techniques are sometimes called quaternary recovery.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage</span>

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is the process of extracting bioenergy from biomass and capturing and storing the carbon, thereby removing it from the atmosphere. BECCS can theoretically be a "negative emissions technology" (NET), although its deployment at the scale considered by many governments and industries can "also pose major economic, technological, and social feasibility challenges; threaten food security and human rights; and risk overstepping multiple planetary boundaries, with potentially irreversible consequences". The carbon in the biomass comes from the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) which is extracted from the atmosphere by the biomass when it grows. Energy ("bioenergy") is extracted in useful forms (electricity, heat, biofuels, etc.) as the biomass is utilized through combustion, fermentation, pyrolysis or other conversion methods.

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The Kemper Project, also called the Kemper County energy facility or Plant Ratcliffe, is a natural gas-fired electrical generating station currently under construction in Kemper County, Mississippi. Mississippi Power, a subsidiary of Southern Company, began construction of the plant in 2010. The initial, coal-fired project was central to President Obama's Climate Plan, as it was to be based on "clean coal" and was being considered for more support from the Congress and the incoming Trump Administration in late 2016. If it had become operational with coal, the Kemper Project would have been a first-of-its-kind electricity plant to employ gasification and carbon capture technologies at this scale.

Coal gasification is a process whereby a hydrocarbon feedstock (coal) is converted into gaseous components by applying heat under pressure in the presence of steam. Rather than burning, most of the carbon-containing feedstock is broken apart by chemical reactions that produce "syngas." Syngas is primarily hydrogen and carbon monoxide, but the exact composition can vary. In Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) systems, the syngas is cleaned and burned as fuel in a combustion turbine which then drives an electric generator. Exhaust heat from the combustion turbine is recovered and used to create steam for a steam turbine-generator. The use of these two types of turbines in combination is one reason why gasification-based power systems can achieve high power generation efficiencies. Currently, commercially available gasification-based systems can operate at around 40% efficiencies. Syngas, however, emits more greenhouse gases than natural gas, and almost twice as much carbon as a coal plant. Coal gasification is also water-intensive.

Lower-temperature fuel cell types such as the proton exchange membrane fuel cell, phosphoric acid fuel cell, and alkaline fuel cell require pure hydrogen as fuel, typically produced from external reforming of natural gas. However, fuels cells operating at high temperature such as the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) are not poisoned by carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide, and in fact can accept hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, steam, and methane mixtures as fuel directly, because of their internal shift and reforming capabilities. This opens up the possibility of efficient fuel cell-based power cycles consuming solid fuels such as coal and biomass, the gasification of which results in syngas containing mostly hydrogen, carbon monoxide and methane which can be cleaned and fed directly to the SOFCs without the added cost and complexity of methane reforming, water gas shifting and hydrogen separation operations which would otherwise be needed to isolate pure hydrogen as fuel. A power cycle based on gasification of solid fuel and SOFCs is called an Integrated Gasification Fuel Cell (IGFC) cycle; the IGFC power plant is analogous to an integrated gasification combined cycle power plant, but with the gas turbine power generation unit replaced with a fuel cell power generation unit. By taking advantage of intrinsically high energy efficiency of SOFCs and process integration, exceptionally high power plant efficiencies are possible. Furthermore, SOFCs in the IGFC cycle can be operated so as to isolate a carbon dioxide-rich anodic exhaust stream, allowing efficient carbon capture to address greenhouse gas emissions concerns of coal-based power generation.

References

  1. ↑ Fleming, Robin (Sep 15, 2010). "Jobs now, jobs in future, clean energy: Kern should lead the way". Bakersfield.com. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Applicant's Status Report No. 9" (PDF). Latham & Watkins LLP. Oct 31, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Preliminary Staff Assessment" (PDF). California Energy Commission. June 28, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  4. ↑ "Clean-coal plants have been plagued by major cost overruns". The Buffalo News. 2015-02-22. p. 78. Archived from the original on February 24, 2024. Retrieved 2024-02-24.
  5. ↑ "Energy Commission Begins Hydrogen Power Plant Review". California Energy Commission. August 26, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  6. ↑ Cox, John (May 31, 2012). "Hydrogen plant agrees to union labor". Bakersfield.com. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  7. ↑ "SCS Energy Closes Deal to Acquire HECA Project in Kern County". Reuters. Sep 28, 2011. Archived from the original on February 23, 2013. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Major Demonstrations: Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI)". NETL. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  9. ↑ "MHI Performing Front-End Engineering and Design Order for CCS-Capable IGCC Power Generation and Fertilizer Production Project". Market Watch. June 1, 2012. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  10. ↑ "MHI Performing Front-End Engineering and Design Order for CCS-Capable IGCC Power Generation and Fertilizer Production Project". Market Watch. June 1, 2012. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  11. ↑ "California's Hydrogen Energy project moves forward". Carbon Capture Journal. May 7, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  12. ↑ "Hydrogen Energy California Project: Commercial Demonstration of Advanced IGCC with Full Carbon Capture" (PDF). NETL. Nov 2011. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  13. ↑ "Hydrogen Energy California Project (HECA)". Southern California Carbon Sequestration Research Consortium. 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  14. ↑ Bierman, Brian (Aug 11, 2010). "Alternative Energy Projects Near Home- Part 2". The Mountain Daily News. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  15. ↑ "MHI Performing Front-End Engineering and Design Order for CCS-Capable IGCC Power Generation and Fertilizer Production Project". Market Watch. June 1, 2012. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  16. ↑ "Hydrogen Energy California Project: Commercial Demonstration of Advanced IGCC with Full Carbon Capture" (PDF). NETL. Nov 2011. Retrieved Sep 5, 2012.
  17. ↑ Lidji, Eric (Feb 20, 2010). "Oil at each end, clean power in the middle". Greening of Oil. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  18. ↑ "HECA Air Quality". California Energy Commission. September 10, 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  19. ↑ "State of the Air" (PDF). American Lung Association. 2013. Retrieved September 12, 2013.
  20. ↑ "Applicant's Status Report No. 9" (PDF). Latham & Watkins LLP. Oct 31, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2012.
  21. ↑ "ECRMS" (PDF).
  22. ↑ "ECRMS" (PDF).
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