Air Products to supply Valero US Gulf refineries with hydrogen, plans new facility
Industrial gases firm Air Products will supply US refiner Valero with more than 200 million standard cubic feet/day of additional hydrogen for its refineries in St. Charles, Louisiana and Port Arthur, Texas, officials said on Monday.
As part of this award, Air Products has also proposed to develop a new world-scale steam methane reformer hydrogen production facility to be located in St. Charles, which is to be on stream during the second half of 2013.
The facility would be connected to Air Products' Gulf coast hydrogen pipeline supply network, which supplies multiple refinery and petrochemical companies in the region.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
"This supply arrangement builds on our well-established relationship with Valero. We already provide hydrogen to help meet their product demands with our two steam methane reformer hydrogen production facilities in Port Arthur,” said Wilbur Mok, vice president of North America tonnage gases for Air Products.
“This proposed new hydrogen facility would help to serve Valero's St. Charles and Port Arthur locations, and also help to meet additional demands of customers on the Air Products' pipeline system,” he continued.
“The facility will be connected to our Gulf coast hydrogen pipeline network, which increases product supply reliability, and provides flexibility to meet increased hydrogen needs through the largest hydrogen pipeline network in the Gulf coast."
Air Products has supplied hydrogen via pipeline to Valero's St. Charles refinery since 1997 and to Port Arthur since 1996. Valero's hydrogen demand is increasing at both facilities with the expansion of its hydrocracking capacity, it said.
Air Products is seeking to raise its hydrogen pipeline supply capability on the Gulf coast to make it the world's largest hydrogen pipeline network. The company already announced plans to construct a new 180-mile long pipeline in 2010. The new pipeline extension, which is in the project execution phase, will connect Air Products' Texas hydrogen system to the Louisiana hydrogen system.
Once complete, Air Products' hydrogen pipeline supply network will stretch from the Houston Ship Channel in Texas to New Orleans, creating the world's largest hydrogen plant and pipeline supply network.
This integrated pipeline system will unite over 20 hydrogen plants and over 600 miles of pipelines. It will supply the Louisiana and Texas refinery and petrochemical industries with over 1.2 billion cubic feet/day of hydrogen.
The new Gulf coast hydrogen pipeline network is expected to be operational in 2012, Air Products said.
The proposed St. Charles hydrogen facility would be built through the global hydrogen alliance between Air Products and Technip.
The hydrogen plant will feature the latest technology advancements to maximize energy efficiency and emissions reduction. The enhanced SMR design targets optimal heat integration and minimal loss of heat to the environment, which in turn lowers natural gas feedstock consumption.
These efforts and other productivity improvements support Air Products' overall sustainability goals of reducing energy consumption and emissions, the company said.
Hydrogen is widely used in petroleum refining processes to remove impurities found in crude oil such as sulfur, olefins and aromatics for meeting the product fuels specifications
Removing these components allows gasoline and diesel to burn cleaner and thus makes hydrogen a critical component in the production of cleaner transportation fuels needed by modern, efficient internal combustion engines.
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