HECA, the Hydrogen Energy California project, will do much more than burn H2 to produce 300 megawatts of emission-free electricity. This U.S. Dept. of Energy-backed project will store (sequester) carbon underground in Kern County's oil fields.
HECA is one of 18 projects "administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) under its Clean Coal Power Initiative. "Essential to the project will be the demonstration of the process know as "carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS)".
On May 3, the owner, SCS Energy, filed with the CA Energ Commission and application for certification of the plant. Next step will be to participate in a 'permitting workshop'.
"HECA is an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle project that will manufacture hydrogen to be used to generate nearly 300 megawatts of low-carbon electricity and to produce low-carbon nitrogen based products, such as fertilizers"
The primary fuels or ‘feedstock' to produce the hydrogen will be coal imported by rail from New Mexico supplemented by petroleum coke, a by-product of the oil refining process, shipped from southern CA refineries as the two nearby refineries do not produce coke.
The captured CO2 from the coal gasification will be injected into the adjacent Elk Hills oil field to obtain "stranded oil", a process called enhanced oil recovery. The carbon remains in the oil fields, thus explaining, in part, the term "clean coal".
Thanks to Kevin Hall
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