Carbon-free plant planned

, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), announced yesterday that they are to commence engineering design of the world’s first industrial scale project to generate ‘carbon-free’ electricity from hydrogen.

The planned project would convert natural gas to hydrogen and carbon dioxide gases, then use the hydrogen gas as fuel for a 350MW power station, and export the carbon dioxide to a North Sea oil reservoir for increased oil recovery.

The project would reduce the amount of carbon dioxide emitted to the atmosphere by the power generation by over 90 per cent. While each of the component technologies making up the project is already proven, their proposed combination in this project is a world first.

Initial engineering feasibility studies into the project have already been completed. The partners will now carry out further detailed front-end engineering design work with the aim of confirming the economic feasibility of the scheme. This work would be expected to be complete in the second half of 2006. This will allow a final investment decision to be taken next year, subject to which the project would then be expected to commence operation in 2009.