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•           Energy Commission begins review
•           CO2 produced to be used for enhanced oil recovery

The official review has started for one of the few hydrogen power plants in the world. It’s planned for Kern County in the Central Valley. The California Energy Commission has declared the application for certification of the 250-megawatt Hydrogen Energy California (HECA) Power Project in Kern County data adequate. That means the commission has received enough information from the plant's applicant -- Hydrogen California International LLC of Long Beach -- to start the year-long certification process. The HECA project is an integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plant that will capture and permanently store 90 percent of its carbon dioxide.

Energy Commission Vice Chairman James D. Boyd is the presiding member leading a committee to review the project with Commissioner Jeffrey Byron as the associate member. The committee makes sure the project meets the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act. Through a process called gasification, the project would heat petroleum coke produced from adjoining oil fields. By gasification, elements like sulfur are sequestered to produce hydrogen fuel and carbon dioxide (CO2). The hydrogen is used to generate electricity, while the CO2 is compressed and piped to the neighboring oil reservoirs and injected for storage to enhance oil recovery. Additionally, the project would include a 100 MW net output peaking natural gas-fired combustion generator that would provide power for plant startup, power the gasifier when the plant does not generate and provide peaking power to the grid. Essentially 350 MW (250 MW net baseload capacity plus 100 MW of simple cycle peaking power) would be available to the grid during high demand periods.

The proposed facility will be located on a 473-acre site about seven miles west of Bakersfield and 1.5 miles of the unincorporated community of Tupman. The site is near the area known as the Elk Hills Field, now currently used primarily for agricultural purposes. The HECA plant is one of a handful of its kind built or proposed in the world. Existing IGCC plants are located in Belgium, Spain and China. The project has won a $308 million funding from the U.S. Department of Energy through the American Recovery and Investment Act under a program espousing power plants that enhance the country's energy security while helping fight global climate change. If approved, HECA will begin construction in 2011, with full commercial operation expected by 2014.

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