The two companies’ aim is to facilitate hydrogen supply chain projects via methylcyclohexane (MCH) as a liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) by combining Axens’ toluene hydrogenation technology with Chiyoda’s Spera Hydrogen technology.

“Signing this alliance will enable Chiyoda and Axens to jointly develop worldwide hydrogen markets, thus accelerating and scaling up the hydrogen supply chain, contributing to a long-term CO₂ emission reduction, to be on track to net zero,” said Patrick Sarrazin, executive vice president new development & transformation at Axens.

Axens’ technology uses high-performance homogeneous catalysis to produce high-purity MCH from toluene and hydrogen. Chiyoda’s technology uses MCH as a hydrogen carrier, and with its proprietary dehydrogenation catalyst, the process also produces hydrogen and toluene from MCH with high conversion and high selectivity.

The combination of both technologies will allow a fast-track approach for implementing projects and provide a single point of contact to reduce the burden of customer coordination between two licensors, the companies said.

The future partners added that the agreement will also help the emergence of the hydrogen market while at the same time mitigating issues linked to safety and the difficulties of transporting and storing the gas, which is highly flammable, has a low density and is easily dispersed into the air. According to the International Energy Agency, the size of the hydrogen economy could be as large as 150 million t/y in 2030.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist