Nov 2 2008
Biofuels Power Corporation announced that it will manage a project to use wood chips and other refuse from Hurricane Ike cleanup activities in the metro Houston area to fuel a pilot scale power generation and carbon sequestration project that will be connected to the ERCOT grid and provide up to 4 MW of low cost green electricity for Houston.
The other operating partners in the project are DSMC of Humble, Texas, a waste wood storage facility owner that served as a primary disposal site for the City of Houston’s Hurricane Ike cleanup effort and controls an initial source of waste wood that will serve as fuel for the project, and Texoga Technologies Corporation, a consulting firm that will provide oil well retrofit and carbon sequestration expertise.
The pilot project will be installed on a 6-acre site near Humble, Texas that is controlled by DSMC, lies on top of the Humble Salt Dome and includes several abandoned oil wells that can be retrofitted for exhaust gas sequestration. Under the preliminary agreements signed today, Biofuels Power will contribute a 2.5 Mw steam turbine, a 1.5 Mw diesel electric generator and transformer and grid interconnect equipment in exchange for a 30% equity interest in the project; DSMC will contribute a ten year lease on the Humble property, infrastructure and waste wood in exchange for a 30% equity interest; and Texoga will contribute oil well retrofit and carbon sequestration consulting services in exchange for a 10% equity interest. Tax credit financing partners will own the remaining 30%.
“In 2006, we built the first commercial biodiesel fueled power plant in the country,” said Fred O’Connor, president and CEO of Biofuels Power. “We now have two plants that run on 100% biodiesel and generate green electricity that we sell to Centerpoint and Entergy. The Humble project gives us an extraordinary opportunity to help with the Hurricane Ike cleanup; convert tons of pre-chipped waste wood into green electricity; and sequester exhaust emissions in a legendary oil field that has been largely inactive for the last 50 years,” Mr. O’Connor continued. “Due to the heavily faulted and fractured geology of the Humble Salt Dome, we don’t expect our carbon sequestration activities to result in significant oil production, but surprising things can happen in old oil fields,” Mr. O’Connor concluded.