Air Products, a provider of atmospheric, process and specialty gases, celebrates the opening of a new hydrogen production facility in Rotterdam, the Netherlands along with ExxonMobil, one of the world's largest international oil and gas companies.
Integration of the new Air Products’ facility with ExxonMobil's refinery will improve energy efficiency by 15% and will minimize 200,000 t of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per year, which is comparable to removing 90,000 vehicles off the road.
Air Products has received support from the Dutch government as well as local authorities to establish the world-class facility that decreases the heat loss to the environment and minimizes the need for natural gas. Technip has been the main contractor for the project and the construction work started in June 2010 and in December 2011, the plant commenced operations. Air Products utilizes excess gas of ExxonMobil refinery to produce hydrogen. The refinery employs hydrogen to carry out desulphurization process of oil products and to manufacture petrochemicals. The new Rotterdam plant employs sophisticated technologies and processes to perform hydrogen production in a more efficient way. In addition, the plant supplies steam to the ExxonMobil refinery.
Manager of ExxonMobil Refinery, Andrew Madden, stated that the perfect way to save energy and minimize related CO2 emissions is by increasing energy efficiency. Projects similar to this enable refineries to continue offering of economical oil products and also to decrease its environmental footprint.
Source: http://www.airproducts.com/