Samref’s Yanbu refinery receives new hydrogen supplies

Air Liquide SA subsidiary Air Liquide Arabia (ALAR) has started deliveries of hydrogen along its newly commissioned 16-km regional pipeline system to Saudi Aramco-Mobil Refinery Co. Ltd.’s (Samref)—a 50-50 joint venture of Saudi Aramco and ExxonMobil Corp. subsidiary Mobil Yanbu Refining Co. Inc.—400,000-b/d Samref refinery in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia.

Hydrogen is moving to the Samref refinery along ALAR’s Yanbu pipeline network from the service provider’s hydrogen production site on the premises of the Saudi Aramco-China Petrochemical Corp. joint venture Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. Ltd.’s (Yasref) 400,000-b/d refinery along the Red Sea in Yanbu Industrial City (YIC), Air Liquide said.

While Samref is the first customer on the pipeline network to receive hydrogen supplies from the Yasref production site, ALAR will also start supplying three other major industrial companies in YIC in the coming months, the service provider said.

Startup of the pipeline network and hydrogen deliveries comes as part of ALAR’s commitment to Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 via its hydrogen infrastructure on both coasts of Saudi Arabia, including Yanbu and Jubail, according to Air Liquide.

The service provider did not disclose a volume of hydrogen delivering to Samref.

Air Liquide began producing hydrogen at the more than €350-million Yanbu site in 2015 as part of a long-term agreement to supply processing units at the Yasref refinery aimed at reducing sulfur content of fuel products to help meet environmental standards for cleaner transportation fuels, the service provider said in June 23, 2015, release.

With two hydrogen production units and one purification unit, Air Liquide’s Yanbu production site has a total nameplate hydrogen capacity of 340,000 cu m/hr, which was to ramp up in the future depending on demand.

Startup of Air Liquide’s Yanbu hydrogen production site preceded Yasref’s commissioning of a 124,000-b/sd, fresh-feed hydrocracker equipped with Chevron Lummus Global’s proprietary maximum-conversion Isocracking technology and two-stage recycle configuration design to enable the refinery’s production of high-quality middle distillates, Euro 5-quality diesel, and aviation kerosine (OGJ Online, Oct. 13, 2016).

Samref previously completed modifications and renovations related to a two-phased clean-fuels project at its Yanbu refinery in 2014-15, which involved installation and revamps of major desulfurization units as part of the refinery’s strategy to comply with Saudi Arabia’s 2013 mandatory specifications for gasoline and diesel with 10 ppm sulfur (OGJ Online, Dec. 11, 2014).