California attempts clean coal from petroleum

California Public Utilities Commissioner Michael Peevey said today that the state is embarking on the world's first gasification and carbon sequestration project to use petroleum coke from oil refineries to produce clean electricity.

The state PUC approved plans for the project on Friday, Peevey announced at the Cleantech Group's Cleantech Forum XXI in San Francisco.

The petroleum coke, or petcoke, is a byproduct made from residue from gasoline and other products from about 12 of the state's 21 oil refineries, Peevey said. About 90 percent of the state's petroleum coke is exported to the Far East and burned in boilers without environmental controls, Peevey said.

"We can ship it there," Peevey said, "but we can't escape pollution from this very dirty source."

The PUC initiative would dispose of the petcoke with a process that could sequester some of the carbon dioxide emissions. Additionally, it would reduce the state's need for natural gas. And it would eliminate the environmental impact of transporting the petcoke to Asia, he said.

Peevey estimated the petroleum coke could produce 1,500 MW of electricity generation.

California gets about 20 percent of its electricity from coal, with much of it transmitted to California from neighboring states.

"We could reduce our dependence on imported oil and raise tax revenues from California's own oil fields," he said.