The plant will be built at Schwechat and produce up to 1,500 t/y green hydrogen, which will be used to hydrogenate both bio-based and fossil fuels. Start-up is scheduled for the second half of 2023. OMV said the facility will reduce its carbon footprint by up to 15,000 t/y of fossil CO₂.

“By building Austria’s largest electrolysis plant in the OMV Schwechat Refinery, we are making another contribution to reducing CO₂ and to meeting climate targets, whereby hydrogen is a key technology. We deliberately opted for green hydrogen production on an industrial scale as we see the potential it holds – for lower-carbon road use as well as for reducing CO₂ emissions in industrial operations,” said Thomas Gangl, OMV’s chief downstream operations officer.

Last July, OMV announced its climate targets, which include reaching net-zero emissions in operations by 2050 or sooner. The Austrian energy and chemicals group said it will achieve this through energy efficiency measures, new technologies such as carbon capture and storage, or carbon capture and utilization, hydrogen and renewables, such as its Austrian photovoltaic plant, along with optimizing its portfolio.

The first phase of the photovoltaic plant, which OMV said is the largest ground-mounted facility of its type in Austria, started up last December, with the second phase set to be completed by the end of 2021. When fully operational, the facility at Schönkirchen will save 10,400 t/y of CO₂.

OMV restructures

In separate news, OMV is to restructure and split its Refining & Petrochemical operations into two separate areas: Refining, and Chemicals & Materials. The move, which has been prompted by last year’s purchase of a majority 75% stake in Borealis, will take effect from Apr. 1.

OMV said the change means it can bundle all relevant responsibilities for petrochemicals and chemicals in a single board division.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist