Great Northern Project Development - South Heart
South Heart Energy project reconfigured to coal-to-hydrogen power plant
The South Heart Energy project, slated to be a coal-to-natural gas plant, has been reconfigured and will now be a coal-to-hydrogen plant that will generate 175 MW of electricity. The facility will be one of the first commercial scale coal-to-hydrogen power plants in the country.
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Artist's rendition of coal-to-hydrogen plant. Click the image for a larger picture. |
The new plant will be one-third of the size of the original coal gasification plant, with an even smaller carbon footprint. The gasification process – in which coal combines with steam in a hot environment - will produce a synthetic gas composed mostly of carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen. Once the syngas is produced, it will be further reacted with more steam to shift the remaining CO to CO2 and more hydrogen, which will power a turbine that produces electricity.
The associated mine is planned to be permitted to produce up to approximately 2.4MM tons per year. The coal used in the facility will still be beneficiated using the technology developed by GTL Energy. In addition, the CO2 emissions will be captured and piped to oilfields in western North Dakota and Montana.
The plant construction is currently projected to employ 800 workers at its peak while the mine construction will employ 100 peak workers. Permanent employment is projected at 300 and 50 for the plant and mine respectively.
The project will transform North Dakota’s lignite, a low rank coal, into three high-value products: low-carbon hydrogen derived power; C02 - captured and used for enhanced oil recovery; and high quality, transportable lignite fuel.
A projected 36-42 month construction/startup period is currently slated to begin in late 2011/early 2012.