Power Plant Would Reuse Carbon Dioxide

From the NYTimes:

"Subsidiaries of BP and Edison International said yesterday that they were planning to build a power plant that would run on oil residues, and that 90 percent of the carbon dioxide would be captured and pumped into an oil field, where it would help push more oil to the surface.

The $1 billion plant would be adjacent to a BP refinery in Carson, Calif., about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, and would be the first such plant in the country, the companies said. BP is already drawing up engineering plans for a plant in Scotland that would sequester its carbon dioxide in an underground oil-bearing formation; that plant is to run on natural gas.

The companies said they hoped to make a final decision on the plant in 2008 and have it running in 2011. It would qualify for a tax credit as a carbon-free energy source under the 2005 energy bill, company executives said.

The plant would run by mixing an oil residue, petroleum coke, in a chamber with steam and a controlled amount of oxygen. In this technique, called gasification, both the fuel and the water give up hydrogen atoms to form hydrogen gas. This process also produces carbon monoxide, which is converted to carbon dioxide, giving off heat to sustain the reaction.

The hydrogen is then burned in a turbine engine, the kind that electric companies normally run on natural gas, and the dominant combustion product is water. The carbon dioxide is compressed into a liquid and injected into an oil field."