Air Products to Build World-Scale Hydrogen Plant at Monsanto Facility in Louisiana
24 October 2009
Air Products has signed a long-term supply contract with Monsanto Company to build a new world-scale hydrogen production plant to be located at Monsanto’s Luling, Louisiana Roundup facility. The new hydrogen plant is scheduled to be on-stream in January 2012.
Air Products will build a steam methane reformer (SMR) producing more than 100 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of hydrogen. The SMR will be connected to Air Products’ East Gulf Coast pipeline network, which supplies refineries with hydrogen needed to make cleaner burning transportation fuels, in addition to meeting the hydrogen needs of the local petrochemical industry. In addition, the facility will produce additional hydrogen via a clean-up of a hydrogen-rich off-gas feed coming from Monsanto. Monsanto will use steam from Air Products’ SMR process to benefit its Roundup production plant.
This agreement provides a win-win for Air Products and Monsanto. Air Products adds a world-class SMR facility, which along with our previously announced Garyville and Baton Rouge SMRs, will enhance the reliability of our leading East Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline system. Monsanto's benefits include a reduction in natural gas used to make steam and an improved outlet for its off-gas stream, which will now be purified and used to make hydrogen.
—Wilbur Mok, vice president-North America Tonnage Gases for Air Products
The Air Products SMR will feature technology advancements to maximize facility energy efficiency and emission reductions.
We have enhanced our SMR design to target minimal loss of heat to the environment, which in turn reduces natural gas usage requirements to make hydrogen. These efforts and other productivity improvements support the company’s overall goals of reducing energy consumption and emissions.
—Tom Wendahl, manager-Tonnage Gases, East Gulf Coast Area for Air Products
Air Products’ East Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline system currently reaches more than 175 continuous miles from Baton Rouge to Chalmette, Louisiana. The network has 15 hydrogen production source points feeding the pipeline system, including the recently announced hydrogen plants being built in Garyville and Baton Rouge, which have anticipated on-stream dates of October 2009 and April 2010, respectively. Additionally, in the US Gulf Coast, Air Products has a second and larger hydrogen pipeline system of more than 300 miles reaching from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Air Products also has hydrogen pipeline networks operating around the world in the US in Southern California; in Sarnia, Ontario and Edmonton, Alberta in Canada; and in Rotterdam in The Netherlands.
Air Products’ hydrogen facility in Luling will be built through the global alliance between Air Products and Technip.
So, for the questions of how the H2 gets made - here's an answer. You can expect to start seeing new H2 fuel pumps around late 2012.
H2 vs. electrons. Atoms vs particles. Fun on a grand scale.
Posted by: sulleny | 24 October 2009 at 04:36 PM
But I think US autos use upwards of the equivalent of 150 billion cu ft of H2 per day, and this is unlikely to be much different for a decade or more, until EVs make a dent in consumption.
Posted by: ToppaTom | 24 October 2009 at 10:50 PM