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The International Energy Agency Hydrogen Implementing Agreement (IEA HIA) is pleased to announce the selection of ELCOGAS and its Pilot Plant for CO2 Capture and H2 Production in Puertollano, Spain as the winner of the 2012 IEA HIA Project Prize. The Prize was bestowed on ELCOGAS, represented by Pedro Casero Cabezón, during an award ceremony at the World Hydrogen Energy Conference (WHEC 2012) in Toronto, Canada, on 4 June.
This ELCOGAS facility is the world's first pilot CO2 capture and H2 production plant at an operating, fully Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power station. Through gasification of solid fossil fuels and residues-using commercially available pre-combustion separation carbon capture technology-the Pilot Plant demonstrated the feasibility of CO2 capture and the production of high purity hydrogen in an IGCC power station. The ELCOGAS Pilot Plant processes between 2,000 and 3,600 Nm3/hr of generated synthesis gas (syngas). As final outputs, the Pilot Plant is capable of capturing 100 tons/day of CO2 and producing 2 tons/day of H2.
The ELCOGAS Pilot Plant is connected with IEA HIA Task 27 "Near-Term Market Routes to Hydrogen by Co-Utilization of Biomass as a Renewable Energy Source with Fossil Fuels." This task has been dedicated to proving the viability of an industrial route to hydrogen from biomass, in combination with residues and fossil fuels, using existing gasification facilities. The key to "greening" a substantial fraction of the hydrogen is to process the renewable feedstock in the gasifier together with the fossil fuel, allowing the production of industrially relevant volumes at economies of scale, while maintaining the capacity for precise calculation of the "green" hydrogen contribution. IEA HIA Task 27's industrial approach is an alternate solution to the technical challenges of processing biomass in "dedicated" facilities. This approach enables production of hydrogen from biomass, given that processed volumes can be in the hundreds of thousands of tons per year per plant.
Commercial gasification plants today are operational in all major markets globally and deliver millions of tons per year of high-demand products. They could readily be adapted to produce pure hydrogen from the syngas by adding only proven, commercially available off-the-shelf components. IEA HIA Chairman Jan K. Jensen notes that "The ELCOGAS Pilot Plant, a commercial gasification facility, is a compelling and successful industrial demonstration that serves as a reference plant for lower-carbon clean power technologies, notably biomass. "Furthermore -he continues-, it is a replicable model for hydrogen production and CO2 capture."