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July 28, 2023
Courtney Pedersen, Staff
writer
Linde to bring $1.8B hydrogen facility
to Beaumont
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Linde, an industrial gases and engineering
company hosted a vendor fair for its new $1.8 billion Beaumont
hydrogen plant July 27, 2023 at the Beaumont Event Centre. Courtney
Pedersen/The Enterprise
Within the next few months, Southeast Texas will
begin to see the signs of construction on a $1.8 billion complex that
will produce hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen.
Linde, a global industrial gas and engineering company, will building
its new "Clean Hydrogen Project" in Beaumont on Twin City Highway
South. The complex will be integrated into Linde's existing Gulf Coast
industrial gas infrastructure.
"The project is to build clean energy and infrastructure for the
Beaumont area," Plant Manager Jacob Keeling said. "What that means is
we're putting in a hydrogen facility that has low carbon intensity."
The company held a vendor fair Thursday at the Downtown Event Centre
to look for civil, mechanical, building, general facilities/supplies,
instrumentation and temporary site facilities contractors.
Keeling said the fair is meant to encourage collaboration between the
company and local community.
"Beaumont has a wealth of a talent that we're trying to tap into
because there's just so much industry already here," he said. "We're
looking for opportunities to connect with the local community and the
local contractors to try to really make the best project that we can
together."
Sanitary Supply Company Vice President David Henderson said his
company attended the event to make contacts in the industry that uses
their types of janitorial and safety supply products.
RELATED: OCI enters partnership for its new Beaumont facility
Henderson said Sanitary Supply Company usually attends three to four
vendor fairs and they are typically "really successful."
"We're already working with OCI right next door to these guys and with
the contractors," Henderson said. "(Linde) made a commitment to work
with local vendors, and we've been in business here in Beaumont since
1937. So, we're pretty local and just making our presence known with
these folks."
Linde Gases U.S. Director of Marketing and Strategy Brian Kelleher
said the company will create about 1,200 jobs during construction and
30 permanent positions.
The facility will supply hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI's 1.1 million
ton per annum blue ammonia plant in Beaumont, according to the
company.
"Linde will supply OCI with clean hydrogen by sequestering more than
1.7 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions each year," the project's
information sheet states. "Linde will also use its extensive pipeline
network to provide clean hydrogen to existing and new customers in the
U.S. Gulf Coast, addressing the increasing demand from companies to
decarbonize their operations."
Clean hydrogen has no universally-accepted definition, however, and
largely refers to hydrogen produced with lower emissions than fossil
fuel-based methods, as opposed to hydrogen with no or extremely-low
emissions.
Linde's process is low carbon intensity and uses natural gas, as well
as hydrogen and oxygen, according to Keeling.
RELATED: Over $2B hydrogen-based blue ammonia facility is coming to
town
The process of producing hydrogen from natural gas is typically
referred to as "blue hydrogen" and carries the potential for methane
leakage, among other potential emissions. However, the blue hydrogen
process from autothermal reforming -- splitting the hydrogen from
methane, like Linde employs -- has shown to create the least
greenhouse gas emissions of other blue hydrogen processes, according
to a study from University of Alberta researchers that appeared in
Energy Conversion and Management.
"Most people who use this don't have a way to capture the carbon
that's removed, we do," Keeling said. "We are able to capture most of
that carbon, and that's what makes us low carbon intensity, which
means that we don't release pollutants into the environment."
Linde also will make nitrogen and oxygen at the plant.
"The atmosphere content of nitrogen is like roughly 79% percent,"
Keeling said. "We use cold temperatures to basically separate out the
nitrogen and the oxygen."
Keeling said OCI will also be it's main customer for nitrogen.
However, there will be "a lot of other customers" that will be tapping
into the nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen through their pipeline.
"There's a lot of infrastructure in the area that's looking for clean
hydrogen, and so we'll be able to provide it to the infrastructure as
well," Keeling said.
Construction is expected to begin early in the fourth quarter of 2023
and be completed by the end of 2025, according to the company.
Green Play Ammonia™, Yielder® NFuel Energy.
Spokane, Washington. 99212
www.exactrix.com
509 995 1879 cell, Pacific.
Nathan1@greenplayammonia.com
exactrix@exactrix.com
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