Clean Energy Systems (CES) is set to acquire the idled Madera Biomass Power Plant located in Madera County, California.
CES aims to convert the existing facility into a Biomass Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) facility. CES said similar projects in Fresno and Kern Counties are under active development.
The facility, once converted into a BiCRS facility, will convert agricultural waste biomass from local farms, into a renewable synthesis gas that will be mixed with oxygen in a combustor to generate electricity and/or hydrogen.
By using biomass fuel that consumes CO2 over its lifetime to produce energy and storing the CO2, the process is designed to result in net-negative carbon emissions, effectively removing greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.
The new BiCRS facility is expected to remove about 600,000 tons of CO2 annually, which is equivalent to the emissions from electricity use of more than 130,000 U.S. homes. It will help improve air quality in the San Joaquin Valley by using approximately 400,000 tons of agricultural waste annually.
CES plans to evaluate the Madera Biomass Power Plant for conversion to a BiCRS facility using CES’ oxy-fuel technology that contributes to cost-effective carbon capture. BiCRS is identified as a low-cost form of engineered carbon removal, resulting in net energy production without routine emissions of nitrous oxide, carbon monoxide and particulates from combustion produced by conventional biomass plants.