Two US companies have embarked on a project to repurpose a retired coal-fired power station in New Mexico to run on 100pc blue hydrogen, in what they say will be the first large-scale conversion of its type.

Technology firm Newpoint Gas and carbon sequestration specialist Brooks Energy aim to convert the 253MW Escalante power plant in Prewitt to run as a zero-emissions dispatchable baseload generator on blue hydrogen produced from natural gas via a methane reformer. A carbon capture facility at the site will remove the CO₂ pre-combustion.

“We see the Escalante project as a good transition to green hydrogen” Rhodes, Newpoint Gas

The conversion will be based on Newpoint’s technology, the patent on which is pending.

“Newpoint’s process removes the carbon pre-combustion via the methane reformer, which is a lot more efficient and means the volume of gas to sequester is lower and the problem of other greenhouse gases are also reduced and or eliminated,” Newpoint Gas CEO Wiley Rhodes tells Hydrogen Economist. The process includes the ability to supply commercial scale clean-fresh water from the hydrogen combustion.

The capacity of the plant will be reduced to 216MW, and it will require  80mn³/d of gas to be supplied via existing pipelines. 

In addition to its dispatchable output, another major revenue stream for the power plant could be the injection of hydrogen into the natural gas pipeline network, sending gas to California  to be blended with methane, Rhodes says.

Green future

The project will pave the way for future green hydrogen projects, according to Rhodes. “With blue hydrogen we are creating the infrastructure to support the production of green hydrogen in the future,” he says.

But Rhodes says existing renewables technology would make it difficult to produce enough green hydrogen to run the power plant exclusively on the clean fuel. “For this plant it would take approximately 40 square miles of solar capacity to support the facility with 100pc green hydrogen,” he says.

Rhodes says it is impossible to put a standard capital cost on the conversion of coal-fired capacity to blue hydrogen because of the variables around carbon capture, utilisation and storage, natural gas availability and the condition of the existing facility.

But the partnership is evaluating the viability of similar conversions at several other coal-fired plants in the Pittsburgh and Ohio River Valley areas.

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Author: Stuart Penson