ExxonMobil lets contract for Baytown blue hydrogen project

ExxonMobil Corp. has let a contract to Technip Energies to deliver critical engineering and design services for a grassroots low-carbon hydrogen production plant and carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant proposed for construction at the operator’s 561,000-b/d integrated refining and petrochemical complex in Baytown, Tex. (OGJ Online, Mar. 3, 2022).

As part of the late-January contract, Technip Energies will provide front-end engineering and design (FEED) of the Baytown hydrogen plant that would be equipped to produce up to 1 bcfd of blue hydrogen, or hydrogen produced natural gas, and supported by CCS infrastructure for capturing about 7 million tonnes/year (tpy), or more than 98%, of associated carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions from the site for permanent storage, ExxonMobil and the service provider said in separate releases.

Part of ExxonMobil’s strategy to reduce emissions from its own and local industry operations, the proposed Baytown low-carbon hydrogen, ammonia, and CCS plant would allow the site to manufacture lower-emissions products for its own customers but also make surplus volumes of hydrogen and ammonia, as well as CO₂ storage capacity, available to nearby industry.

While it does not plan to reach a final investment decision (FID) on the development until 2024, ExxonMobil said it has already started discussions with third-party customers for offtake agreements from the project that, if approved, would reach startup in 2027-28.

Upon first announcing the project in March 2022, ExxonMobil said use of hydrogen produced by the planned project as a fuel at the Baytown olefins plant could reduce the integrated complex’s CO₂ emissions as defined by Scope 1 and Scope 2 of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard by up to 30%, supporting the operator’s ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from its operated assets by 2050.