$308 million Awarded To Hydrogen Plant From Clean Coal Power Initiative

The US government has awarded $308 million of Recovery Act funding to Hydrogen Energy International to build a hydrogen fuelled power plant in California.

Hydrogen Energy International, a joint venture between BP and Rio Tinto, will build the Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle power plant that will take petroleum coke, biomass, coal or blends of each, combined with non-potable water to convert them into hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2). The hydrogen gas will be used to fuel a net 250-megawatt power station. The CO2 will be transported by pipeline to nearby oil reservoirs and injected for permanent storage and enable additional production from existing Kern County oilfields.

The plant will be used to power over 150,000 homes. A natural gas-fired plant of comparable size would expel more than two million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every year, it says. Hydrogen Energy International estimates that the project will create up to 1,500 construction jobs oncxe it starts in 2011 and up to 100 permanent green collar jobs when it comes online in 2015.

Source: Fuel Cell Today