It's a power plant in a box with zero emissions. A power plant without pollution. And the CEO of Clean Energy Systems sees "greener" days ahead. Keith Pronske is a mechanical engineer. A lifetime spent in the power generation industry. He says the contraption behind him, has the potential to radically change the way electricity is produced around the world. It's called an Oxy-Burner, essentially a rocket engine that's bolted to a steam pipe, designed by men who put man on the moon. "They spent their careers in the aerospace industry. They started back in the 1950's. So it wasn't until they retired that they said let's take this technology that we've been using for decades and use it to make electricity."
They have taken the same rocket technology that pushes the space shuttle into orbit, and applied it to land-based power generation. Here's how it works. Pressurized oxygen, natural gas and recycled water are fed through the combustion chamber. Steam and carbon dioxide come out the other. The steam drives a turbine to make electricity. The CO2 is captured. And in Kern County, it can be injected into the ground for enhanced oil recovery. "In California alone we would be able to recover another five billion barrels of oil," added Pronske.
Another by-product is pure water, which is recycled through the system. "This plant is a net producer of water. There's hydrogen in the fuel, oxygen in the air and when you combust them together you get water," said Pronske.
CES has sunk $30 million into this project. One plant can power some 40,000 homes. It's designed to be a "peaker" plant, coming on line during times of high energy demand. Testing will be completed later this year. A second generation oxy-burner is being developed, to generate enough electricity to power 200,000 homes. "This is first generation technology and we're working with the department of energy to put this technology in a 200 megawatt power plant and hope to have that technology available by 2012, testing right here at Kimberlina," added Pronske.
The CES power plant isn't running right now. That's because they are sharing their steam turbine with the Areva Solar Power Plant next door. "We host the facility. They produce steam during the day and bring it to our plant and produce electricity. When they're not producing, we can produce power with our technology," Pronske added.
Pronske says this power plant can run on almost any type of fossil fuel, and they're developing systems to generate power from biomass. "If we gasify ag waste, it's the same process but now we're literally removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere."
CES is deploying this zero emission technology to build two power plants, one in Los Angeles County and one in Europe, plus the plant in Kern County, which has already proven itself.
