In the plant’s design, Linde Engineering’s hydrogen and air separation technologies will be combined with Johnson Matthey’s Carbon Hydrogen (LCH) technology.

A separate operation and maintenance service contract has been awarded to UK-based industrial gases company BOC, also Linde-owned. This tasks the company with operating and maintaining the facility due to start up in the Saltend Chemicals Park up in 2027.

Equinor’s 600 MW low carbon hydrogen production plant with carbon capture, touted as the first of its kind and scale, is part of a wider-reaching public plan to establish the region in northeast England as an international hub for low carbon hydrogen. The project expected to deliver 1.8 GW of LCH production within the region is also the energy group’s kick-starter for the Zero Carbon Humber effort.

To reduce emissions, several production facilities located in the park will be converted to run on hydrogen rather than natural gas. Additionally, LCH will be blended into natural gas at Equinor and SSE Thermal’s on-site Saltend power station and save the need to store around 890,000 tonnes of CO₂, Linde said.

By transporting hydrogen to industrial customers and capturing CO₂ for safe sub-sea storage, the energy group’s project aims to make the Humber region Net Zero by 2040.

First US large-scale blue ammonia plant

In other news, the Linde group, which in recent years has become a major player in hydrogen, has signed a long-term agreement to provide clean hydrogen and other industrial gases to the Korean chemical producer OCI’s new US-based world-scale blue ammonia plant in Beaumont, Texas.

Linde will build, own and operate an on-site complex that is scheduled to go on stream in 2025 and will include autothermal reforming with carbon capture, as well as a large air separation plant. The new projected expected to cost around $1.8 billion will be integrated into Linde’s extensive US Gulf industrial gas infrastructure and supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s 1.1 million t/y blue ammonia plant.

According to the contractor, this will be the first greenfield blue ammonia facility of this scale to come onstream in the US. To supply clean hydrogen, it will sequester more than 1.7 million t/y of CO₂ emissions.

Additionally, the now Ireland-headquartered gases and engineering group will leverage its extensive Gulf Coast pipeline network to provide clean hydrogen to existing and new customers in the US. The facility will also supply atmospheric and rare gases to existing and new customers.

Synthesis gas plant for BASF in China

In a third major project, Linde Engineering has signed an engineering and procurement agreement with BASF to build a synthesis gas plant in Zhanjiang, China. The company will carry out the contract in a consortium with Chinese partner East China Engineering Science and Technology Co., Ltd (ECEC).

In the past, the two sides have collaborated on the design and construction of several Rectisol gas removal units in China. For the new BASF project, Linde will act as consortium leader and at the same time provide basic engineering and key equipment, while ECEC will be responsible for the detailed design and construction.

Author: Dede Williams, Freelance Journalist