In mid-July, the two companies announced their intention to jointly develop and deploy new power projects designed to transform fossil fuels into hydrogen, to produce cleaner energy.

The companies intend to partner on carbon storage and geosequestration in the process, to further reduce greenhouse impacts.

BP previously announced its intention to build two hydrogen power projects (in Scotland and California), but following the agreement with GE, the companies jointly stated they would pursue up to 13 additional projects around the world, using their financial muscle to create leading-edge clean energy technologies and processes.

“The combination of our two companies’ skills and resources in this area is formidable, and is the latest example of our intent to make a real difference in the face of the challenge of climate change,” BP Gas, Power and Renewables chief executive Vivienne Cox said.

“BP and GE’s strategic approaches to developing increasingly cleaner, lower carbon power options are closely aligned and our skills and strengths are highly complementary.”

GE vice president and GE Infrastructure chief executive Dave Calhoun said although fossil fuels would remain an integral part of the world’s energy sources, the combined expertise of both companies created opportunities for much cleaner methods of producing energy.

“This initiative will demonstrate that our companies’ leading-edge technologies can make hydrogen production efficient, reliable, and economical for large-scale, commercial power production,” he said.

“Our financial strength will ensure it happens now globally, changing the way we envision our energy future.”

GE technology had already been specified for BP’s two existing hydrogen power proposals, but the two companies are now considering a joint venture to manage projects and technology developments.

The existing proposals are based on the use of natural gas and coal gasification technologies, expected to produce significant amounts of baseload power while reducing emissions.

By implementing carbon capture and geosequestration to the process, the two companies hope to reduce power generation-related emissions by as much as 90%, compared to business as usual models.

“The combination of coal gasification and carbon capture and sequestration is crucial for clean coal development and presents great opportunities for countries with substantial reserves of coal such as the USA, China and India,” BP Hydrogen director Lewis Gillies commented.