A $2.2 billion hydrogen power plant and a linked carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in the United Arab Emirates should be completed in 2014, a senior executive at the company building the plant said on Monday. The Hydrogen Power project is a joint venture between the UAE's renewable energy initiative Masdar, BP and Rio Tinto. It could be the world's first large-scale CCS project, in a race with a clutch of projects around the world.

The plant would split natural gas into hydrogen and the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). The hydrogen would fire a 500 megawatt power plant, while the CO2 would be injected into oilfields. The plant itself would consume around 100 MW, leaving 400 MW to be sold into the UAE's power grid.

The injection of the gas under an oilfield would at the same time store the greenhouse gas and help boost oil output by maintaining underground pressure. Preliminary engineering and design was completed by Foster Wheeler last year, David Binnie, general manager of Hydrogen Power, told Reuters.

Copyright Reuters, 2010