Tag: Air Liquide

A consortium has unveiled plans to build one of the largest green hydrogen plants in the world in a bid to make Oman a leader in renewable energy technology. The $30 billion project is being developed by Oman’s state-owned oil firm OQ, green fuels developer InterContinental Energy and Kuwait government-backed renewables investor EnerTech. Construction is scheduled to start in 2028 in Al Wusta governorate on the Arabian Sea. It will be built in stages, with the aim to be at full capacity by 2038, powered by 25 GW of wind and solar energy. Two years has already been spent on solar and wind monitoring analysis for the development. According to the consortium, the site chosen has the optimal diurnal profile of strong wind at night and reliable sun during the day, and is also located near the coast for seawater intake and electrolysis.

Gasification technology offers the promise of being able to convert the increasing volumes of municipal waste generated by society into useful chemical products. In spite of a patchy commercial record, interest in the process remains high.

By using a Rectisol™ demonstration unit at one of Air Liquide’s industrial production sites, Air Liquide Engineering & Construction has gained unique know-how in Rectisol™ column design with structured packings. S. Schmidt, R. Szabo, M. Linicus and S. Corbet report on how the application of commercially available structured packings in the absorber columns of a Rectisol™ unit results in significant capex and opex savings.

In a carbon-constrained world, carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCUS) installed on a methanol plant is a necessary and feasible solution. The new, patented AdWinMethanol CC® technology, jointly developed by thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions AG and GasConTec GmbH, integrates carbon capture into large-scale, natural gas-fuelled methanol production to yield a drastically reduced carbon footprint. U. Koss and W. Balthasar of GasConTec and J. Wagner of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions discuss how it removes CO 2 emissions in an efficient, cost effective, and environmentally friendly manner, taking advantage of the design features of AdWinMethanol ® .

Johnson Matthey (JM) has been selected by China’s Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group as licensor for a third methanol synthesis plant at their coal to olefins complex near Yinchuan in Ningxia province. With a planned capacity of 7,200 t/d (2.4 million t/a), the unit will be the largest single train methanol plant in the world once completed.

Falling costs for production of hydrogen by electrolysis are encouraging more serious consideration of using recovered carbon dioxide as a feedstock for chemicals and even fuels production.

Olefins production from methanol, particularly in China, has come to dominate the methanol market over the past few years. However, environmental and market concerns complicate the outlook there.