Tag: Hydrogen

CRU’s Nitrogen + Syngas conference convened at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, from March 5th-8th.

BASF says that its high-pressure regenerative CO2 capture technology HiPACT ® , codeveloped by BASF and engineering partner JGC Corporation will be used by INPEX, one of Japan’s largest exploration and production companies, in its Kashiwazaki Clean Hydrogen/Ammonia Project. This is Japan’s first demonstration project for the production of blue hydrogen/ammonia from domestically produced natural gas, the consistent implementation of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in domestic depleted gas fields and the use of hydrogen for power generation and ammonia production. The project is funded by the Japanese governmental organization New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO).

The world’s most common syngas production method remains steam methane reforming, a process which has a substantial CO2 footprint as the necessary reaction heat is supplied by combustion of hydrocarbons. Topsoe’s eREACT™ technology allows for the first-of-its-kind electrification of the traditional SMR process. The reaction heat for eREACT™ is instead generated directly by (renewable) electricity, thereby eliminating the flue gas altogether. Having gone through scale-up from bench scale to industrially relevant pilot scale the technology is now ready for industrial application.

ExxonMobil has awarded the contract for front-end engineering and design (FEED) of what it describes as the world’s largest low-carbon hydrogen production facility. A final investment decision for the project is expected by 2024, subject to stakeholder support, regulatory permitting, and market conditions. Technip Energies will conduct the FEED for the Baytown integrated complex, which will produce up to 1 bcf/d of low carbon hydrogen, while capturing more than 98% of associated CO2 emissions, totalling around 7 million tCO2 e/year. Offtake agreements are reportedly under discussion with third party customers. Start-up is planned for 2027-2028. The carbon capture and storage network being developed for the project will also be made available for use by third-party CO2 emitters in the area in support of their decarbonisation efforts.

The steam methane reformer is at the heart of most world-scale synthesis gas plants for ammonia, methanol or hydrogen production, and its optimum performance will maximise plant production and efficiency. This article studies the wide variety of parameters that need to be considered if a steam methane reformer is optimised.

More than 650 delegates from 326 companies and 56 countries gathered at the Hotel RIU Plaza España, Madrid, Spain, 17-19 October 2022, for the Argus Fertilizer Europe 2022 conference.

When candle filter mist eliminators installed in the absorption towers in sulphuric acid plants are not sufficiently wet, problems can occur such as free SO3 at the stack, NOx issues and emission non-compliance. Craig Cassells of Begg Cousland Envirotec discusses how these problems can be overcome by the installation of an annular wetting ring solution.

Safety in sulphuric acid plants is a well-known and widely discussed topic. Industry turnover is a reality, and keeping new employees informed of hydrogen safety procedures is key to keeping plants fully operational and incident free. Walter Weiss of Elessent Clean Technologies discusses the steps facilities need to take to prevent hydrogen incidents.

Lithium miner Ioneer Ltd has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Shell Canada Energy for the supply of sulphur to Ioneer for its Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Ionner said in a statement that “securing the supply of key reagents for ore processing is an important step along the critical pathway to developing the Rhyolite Ridge project”. Under the memorandum, Ioneer will purchase up to 500,000 t/a of high-quality sulphur from Shell, which would fulfil the estimated annual sulphur requirement for the Project.

CRU Events will host the 2023 Nitrogen + Syngas conference and exhibition at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower in Barcelona, 6-8 March.