Technical studies have determined that the availability of partially depleted oil reservoirs in the Elk Hills Oil Field would be ideal for storing carbon dioxide and using it for enhanced oil recovery efforts.  These reservoirs have held quantities of oil, gas and sometimes CO₂ securely trapped for millions of years – that is why we believe it will also hold injected CO₂. The CO2 will be injected over 6,000 ft below the surface into a sandstone rock layer that is capped by a dome shaped impervious shale rock. The fact that this field is extensively studied and mapped makes it an ideal location for long term safe storage of CO2.

The HECA power plant will generate clean low carbon electricity by transforming fossil fuels into clean burning hydrogen that provides reliable power to the grid nearly 24h a day 7 days a week regardless whether the wind is blowing or the sun is shinning. Typically renewables, such as wind and solar, produce electricity only one third of the time. So although renewables provide an important form of clean energy they are intermittent.

We believe hydrogen power and renewables are complementary in the sense that both deliver cleaner energy and both are needed to meet greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Carbon dioxide has been safely transported via pipeline and pumped underground for 40 years by energy companies in Canada, the United States and internationally. In the past this CO2 mostly came from naturally occurring underground CO2 reservoirs and was transported then re-injected in oil fields to perform Enhanced Oil Recovery in locations thousands of miles away. The HECA facility will capture CO2 from a power plant instead of allowing it to be vented into the atmosphere. It will then be transported 5 miles away via secure pipeline to a nearby oil field where the CO2 will be injected over 6,000 ft underground beneath a thick layer of impervious cap-rock where it will become sequestered.

Over 100 CO2 injection projects are operating today in the United States today where the CO2 travels through thousands of miles of piplines. CO2 has been safely injected underground into formation that naturally trap it underground in the almost macroscopic pore spaces in sub-surface rock layers. CO₂is a naturally occurring gas that exists in the air we breath and beneath the surface of the earth. The process of injecting CO2 back underground returns the CO2 to where it was naturally stored for millions of years.

California has shown leadership in addressing the climate change issue and is a fitting location for the HECA project which would prove the application of the hydrogen power and carbon capture and storage concept to solid fuels, such as petcoke or coal. There are also very compelling economic development reasons for building this high tech facility in California namely job creation and new local tax revenues. Demonstration of the concept for future application in countries such as China will be a significant step.  China and other countries are also dedicating considerable time and money to identifying potential technologies and projects that will demonstrate the enormous environmental and economic benefits that CCS can bring.

About 2,000 construction jobs are expected t be created at peak during construction of the facilities which will last 4 years. About 140 permanent jobs will be created at the power generation and fertilizer manufacturing faculties and will exist throughout the life of the facility. This is in addition to jobs that may be created from ancillary business growth stemming from increased economic activity.

SCS Energy, one of the nation’s leading independent producers of clean power, has acquired the project. SCS Energy is a private power plant development company headquartered in Concord, Mass. The company’s mission is to create high-value power generation assets that bring excellent returns to investors while leading the industry in environmental stewardship and climate change mitigation. Its award winning 1100 MW power plant development in New York City helped stabilize the grid by solving a load pocket problem in Queens while helping to establish the use of air cooled condensing for power plants in New York.

The HECA facility will be using existing proven technologies but will be the first operation in the world that groups them together in one plant to perform commercial scale carbon capture storage during power generation.

Gasification: Gasification technology has been used for decades and its uses range from gasification for chemicals production and products to power generation. Primary technology providers for the gasification of coal and petroleum coke feeds in conjunction with combined cycle power generation are GE, ConocoPhillips, and Shell.

Gas separation: Gas separation (in this case CO₂ capture) is widely used and is a standard technology across the oil and gas industry. LNG liquefaction plants commonly have CO₂ capture facilities to extract CO2 from the gas stream before liquefaction. Refineries are another user of CO₂ extraction/capture technology.

CO₂ transport: This is a long-standing activity in the Permian basin of West Texas. CO₂ is produced from naturally occurring reservoirs at Sheep Mountain and the Bravo dome, and has been safely transported (over 200 miles) and injected into Permian reservoirs for EOR. Occidental is a key player in both the transportation and injection of CO₂.

CO₂sequestration by reinjection: This process is currently conducted at the Sleipner field in Norwegian North Sea, and at In Salah in Algeria.

H₂-fired turbines: Natural Gas fired turbines with operational properties similar to those needed for Hydrogen combustion have been used for years. All major turbine designers have effectively tested the combusiton of the Hydrogen in modified natural gas turbines.

Hydrogen Energy California is completing the technical studies, permitting process and commercial discussions in order to build the HECA facility that will be the world’s first commercial scale power plant with 90% carbon capture stoarge . 

Incetives exist today to encourage the development of wind and solar power but few exist to encourage the development of the low carbon and reliable power that comes from power plants equipped with carbon capture storage. Regulatory frameworks that act as catalysts for the development of CCS projects will enable the rapid deployment of this important low carbon power option.

There are several large scale carbon capture and storage demonstration projects where on average 1 million tonnes of CO2 per facility have been captured during industrial processes and safely sequestered undgeround  Sleipner Norway since 1996, Weyburn, Canada since 2000, and in Salah, Algeria since 2004 – all without incident.

Additionally, over 30 million tonnes a year are presently being injected underground at CO2 Enhanced Oil Recovery operations in the United States. These operations are located primarily in Texas and Canada and have been going on for 40 years. 

To view a map of worldwide existing CO2 Storage Operations click here