petroleum coke to clean electricity

[Adrian]

This is an older project, but it looks like another piece in the energy puzzle to me. Use what is essentially a low value by product (petroleum coke) available at most refineries, gassify it to make Hydrogen, scrub all carbon emissions as liquefied CO2 and pump this stream into old oilfields for storage or further recovery of oil while burning H2 to produce electricity with only water as an emission. Not too mention extra hydrogen for future fuel cell cars or truly clean electricity for you next electric car. To be built in Southern CA in Carson.

https://www.cleanfleetreport.com/vault/carson.htm

https://www.bpalternativenergy.com/liveassets/bp_internet/alternativenergy/next_generation_hydrogen_carson.html

[CraziFuzzy]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Any surplus hydrogen from the CHPP will be going into Air Product's local hydrogen pipeline, which feeds the local refineries. There are currently no hydrogen fueling stations on the pipeline, though the pipeline does connect to toyota's test facility in torrance.

Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of this particular project, in that it is using what is essentially a dirty waste stream, and making it into a clean energy source. However, try not to tie fuel-cell cars into it, as it has nothing to do with the project currently. It is simply mentioned in most stories about it to grab the buzzword-sensetive audience.

[freedml]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Have there been any large scale projects to actually sequester CO2? Do you get as much H2 energy out as you put into the process? I'm guessing 'no' to both crucial questions.

[Adrian]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Have there been any large scale projects to actually sequester CO2? Do you get as much H2 energy out as you put into the process? I'm guessing 'no' to both crucial questions.

Short answer, sort of, and yes.
I'm not sure if any projects have been used to only commercially prove CO2 sequestration. I believe it is being used to enhance oil recovery in oil fields, so that it similar enough since it goes in and stays in. As far as getting the H2 out of coke, that is not new, and yes it is energy efficient.Check the web for syngas formation, ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer-Tropsch_process ) which can be coupled with a variety of processes as a next step. Wikepedia has a simple explanation of syngas formation coupled with Fischer Tropsch. I think turn of the century lamps in cities ran off primitive syngas reactor produced H2 in many cities. In the coke to hydrogen to electricity project, once you have the hydrogen you just have to separate the CO, shift it to CO2 for easier recovery and that part of the process is done. Since they're dealing with petroleum coke, I'm sure there must be a loop for sulfur recovery, but hey, even that is worth money and better used in agriculture of pharmaceutical industries than as SO2 in our air. The idea is feasible. Permitting this in So Cal even given it's green approach, is probably a nightmare anyway. After all we can't burn CNG in engines if the conversion kits are not EPA approved. Europe just test for emissions...and imagine that.. they're cleaner when you burn CNG. We, on the other hand.....love to feed a mostly useless bureaucracy.

[CraziFuzzy]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Have there been any large scale projects to actually sequester CO2? Do you get as much H2 energy out as you put into the process? I'm guessing 'no' to both crucial questions.

The CO2 sequestering is nothing complicated, the exhaust form the turbine is basically CO2, N2 and H2O. The H2O is knocked out and the CO2 is compressed and shot down apipeline to the oil fields, where it is pumped into the top of the wells, to push more oil out the bottom (as well, as out of the 'spongy' earth).

[freedml]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Ok, I did about 2 minutes worth of research.

It about doubles the cost of making the Hydrogen (which is already at least double the cost of just using Methane directly in an NGV).

So, it fails the 'efficiency' question miserably.

[Adrian]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

Ok, I did about 2 minutes worth of research.

It about doubles the cost of making the Hydrogen (which is already at least double the cost of just using Methane directly in an NGV).

So, it fails the 'efficiency' question miserably.

I'm curious how you worked that out.

[CraziFuzzy]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

This is not designed to be a method of hydrogen production, it is waste management. I fail to see how you can calculate a cost of manufacturing when the input is waste with virtually no intrinsic value. Whether you believe it or not, this project is a win on all fronts. It eliminates a dirty waste stream, and with it makes electricity, enhances oil production, has zero pollution, and has a negative net operating cost. I'd challenge you to find another waste process that does that.

[Adrian]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

This is not designed to be a method of hydrogen production, it is waste management. I fail to see how you can calculate a cost of manufacturing when the input is waste with virtually no intrinsic value. Whether you believe it or not, this project is a win on all fronts. It eliminates a dirty waste stream, and with it makes electricity, enhances oil production, has zero pollution, and has a negative net operating cost. I'd challenge you to find another waste process that does that.

There's actually a market for petroleum coke, it is made up of "fuel grade" (cheaper, used as fuel in other parts of the world) and "anode grade" (used in aluminum production) coke. Prices have recently gone up on both grades from what I hear, since I no longer follow this closely.

[CraziFuzzy]

Re: petroleum coke to clean electricity

While I realize there is a use for coke, the supply FAR exceeds the demand, and there are storage facilities full to the brim with the stuff, with no clean way to get rid of it.

[300mileclub]

Carbon capture and the Allam Cycle

The race to net-zero emissions is an uphill one. If successfully deployed at scale, the Allam Cycle technology could provide carbon capture, utilization, and storage. One company that employs the cycle, NET Power, has constructed a 50 megawatt (MW) demonstration plant in La Porte, Texas that is up and running, with plans to bring a full-scale 300 MW plant online in 2022.

Rodney Allam, creator of the Allam Cycle, estimates that plants equipped with his technology can hit efficiencies of 59 percent while capturing 100 percent of the CO2 which can be utilized by co-locating an Allam Cycle plant with an industrial facility that uses CO2. This compares to 62 percent efficiency at the most efficient combined-cycle gas turbine plants (CCGTs), which capture no emissions.

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/carbon-capture-and-the-allam-cycle-the-future-of-electricity-or-a-carbon-pipeline-dream/

[300mileclub]

Will Marshall and Paul Bledsoe for THE HILL 03/08/21 - Natural gas and America's clean energy transition

Natural gas has played a key role in lowering U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in the past 15 years, in part by displacing higher emitting coal. But gas, which still provides more than a third of America’s electricity, must play an even greater part in America’s decarbonization plans going forward.

Right now, gas uniquely supports the expansion of renewable energy by providing an instantly dispatchable source of electricity. Unlike coal and nuclear plants, natural gas power plants turn on and off within minutes, allowing the grid to quickly match supply and demand even when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining. As a U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory report has noted, this unique flexibility of natural gas generation thereby facilitates the steady expansion of renewables.

Natural gas can contribute to a decarbonized electricity grid in other ways as well. These include fuel substitution with renewable natural gas, blending of hydrogen into gas pipelines, creation of “blue” hydrogen and the potential of new generation technologies such as Allam Cycle plants, which should continue to gain research and deployment support.

But too often the political debate around energy and climate policy presents Americans with a false choice between natural gas and renewable energy. Today, in fact, the two are intertwined. America needs natural gas now to enable and backstop the rapid deployment of renewable energy on the grid, not to mention supplying power to U.S. industries and homes. Rather than politically counterproductive efforts to ban gas production, progressives must keep their eyes on the real prize: achieving net zero carbon emissions.

https://thehill.com/opinion/energy-environment/541965-natural-gas-and-americas-clean-energy-transition

[300mileclub]

Anchondo and Klump for EnergyWire 11/17/2021 - CO2-free natural gas?

A Texas natural gas plant has delivered emissions-free electricity to the grid for the “first time anywhere in the world” for this kind of technology, according to an announcement yesterday from clean energy company Net Power LLC.

The company said its natural gas test project the 50-megawatt La Porte, Texas plant exported enough energy to power more than 1,000 homes during a first-time grid synchronization — calling the delivery a “major milestone for the energy industry.”

The plant operates using Net Power’s proprietary technology, which works by burning natural gas with pure oxygen, instead of air, and using “supercritical” carbon dioxide, instead of steam, to drive a turbine and generate electricity.

Although Net Power’s four-step cycle recycles most of the resulting CO2, excess CO2 is captured and is “pipeline ready” for underground storage in geologic formations or use in industrial processes (and commercial greenhouses.)

In April, clean technology company 8 Rivers Capital LLC announced plans to build two emissions-free gas power plants using Net Power’s technology, one in Colorado and another in Illinois (Energywire, April 16). In its statement yesterday, Net Power also said projects using its technology have been announced in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/co2-free-natural-gas-ccs-project-powers-grid-for-first-time/