Section: CRUNS Industry News

Greene Tweed's advancement in hydrogen compression technology sets a record-breaking tip speed to 688 m/s in testing

thyssenkrupp Uhde says that it has successfully commissioned a hydrogen recovery unit (HRU) at the Fertil ammonia-urea plant in Ruwais, owned by Fertiglobe, a global exporter of urea and ammonia. The scope of work included engineering, procurement and site supervision during installation and start-up of the units.

As part of the Japanese government’s Green Transformation scheme, two hydrogen producers have been selected to receive subsidies for low-carbon production projects. Out of the overall $1 trillion GX scheme, $51 billion is earmarked for hydrogen and ammonia investments, with the bulk going towards a long-term programme that subsidises the increased production costs. The first two recipients are a Toyota Tshuho-led consortium (electrolytic hydrogen for steel), and Resonac (hydrogen from used plastics for ammonia). In the programme, production projects are required to have the support of a major hydrogen consumer – in Resonac’s case, this is Japanese chemicals giant Nippon Shokubai, who will offtake the ammonia produced from lower-carbon hydrogen.

The US Department of Energy has agreed a $1.5 billion loan for the Indiana-based Wabash Valley Resources LLC to finance a coal-powered ammonia plant in West Terre Haute. The project will restart and repurpose a coal gasification plant that has been idled since 2016. However, previous plans to include carbon capture and storage in the project, as agreed as recently as May by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), appear to have been abandoned. The loan comes from the Trump administration’s Energy Dominance Financing Program financed via the so-called “big beautiful bill”. It aims to reduce US dependence on foreign sources of fertilizer and to provide domestic sources of consumption for America’s shrinking coal industry. The facility is aiming to produce 500,000 t/a of ammonia using coal from a mine in southern Indiana as well as petroleum coke as feedstock.

Topsoe has been selected as technology provider by Sandpiper Chemicals LLC, for their new blue methanol plant in Texas City, Texas. Topsoe will license its Syn-COR™ technology, which will be combined with carbon capture & storage (CCS) for the production of blue methanol. The project, when operational will produce 3,000 t/d of blue methanol. The IEA estimates that methanol demand is expected to grow to 120-150 million t/a by 2030. Today, methanol is primarily used within the chemical industry, but growing demand is coming from the shipping industry as it looks to lower emissions.

ATOME says that it has signed a definitive offtake agreement with Yara for the purchase of the entire 260,000 t/a output of the low-carbon Villeta project. The plant will be based on 100% renewable baseload power, and will displace some 500,000 t/a of carbon dioxide equivalent. ATOME says that the agreement represents the last commercial milestone in its path to a final investment decision (FID), following the successful completion of other key commercial items, including the signing of the $465 million fixed-price, lump-sum engineering, procurement and construction contract with Casale.

Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) has granted approval in principle to SRC for ‘methanol superstorage’, an innovative tank design concept that uses a sandwich plate system technology to almost double shipboard storage capacity for both methanol and ethanol. The approval confirms that methanol superstorage is feasible for the intended application in accordance with the society’s 'Guidelines for Ships Using Alternative Fuels’.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Compressor International Corporation says that it has successfully delivered syngas and ammonia refrigeration compressor trains for the Beaumont New Ammonia Project in Beaumont, Texas. This facility, originally developed by OCI Global as the OCI Clean Ammonia project, now owned by Woodside Energy, will be the first large-scale, lower-carbon greenfield ammonia facility in the world.

The nitrogen plants at HIP’s Azotara site are to be dismantled and removed as part of plans to convert the site to a data storage facility. Plants to be removed include the urea plant and urea storage facility, the UAN liquid storage facility, the calcium ammonium nitrate and nitric acid plans, and thegrain storage societies. In addition, the entire Block 6 is planned to be removed, which includes ammonia plants and storage, nitric acid and urea production, all of which have been out of operation for a long time.

NextChem and Siemens Energy have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the development and commercialisation of a high temperature methanol fuel cell, based on a newly designed modularised solution. With an initial focus on the high-end yachting segment, the target market for the cooperation is the maritime industry and beyond. According to the MoU, NextChem will focus on the design and supply of the methanol fuel cell module, while Siemens Energy will leverage its expertise in onboard system integration, complete electrification and energy management with the aim of delivering a complete solution to shipyards and owners.