bp lets contract for unit at Kwinana biorefinery

bp PLC has let a contract to Technip Energies NV to supply a new hydrogen production unit in support of subsidiary bp Australia Pty. Ltd.’s proposed project to produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its former oil refinery in Kwinana, south of Perth, on Australia’s western coast (OGJ Online, Feb. 20, 2023).

Technip Energies will deliver engineering, procurement, and fabrication (EPF) of a modularized unit equipped with its proprietary steam methane reformer (SMR) technology for production of 33,000 cu m/hr of hydrogen based on a feedstock of either natural gas or biogas produced by the planned Kwinana biorefinery, the service provider said on Aug. 29.

Hydrogen produced by the unit will be returned to the biorefinery for use in production of renewable fuels such as SAF and biodiesel using a feedstock of yet-to-be specified renewable materials.

While it did not reveal a timeframe for its work on the project, Technip Energies valued the EPF contract between €50 million and €250 million.

The proposed hydrogen production unit comes as part of bp’s ongoing plan to repurpose the site of its 2021-idled conventional refinery into a biorefinery that will be integrated with Kwinana’s existing import terminal and plans for green hydrogen production, H2Kwinana, currently under evaluation (OGJ Online, Sept. 7, 2021).

Designed to support the operator’s broader aim to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 in line with the global energy transition, bp recently said environmental and social impact studies remain under way for the proposed Kwinana energy hub, which would house both the biorefinery and H2Kwinana.

In the latest project descriptions on the operator’s website, bp said it planned to begin leveraging the idled refinery’s infrastructure and repurposing some redundant processing units to advance the biorefinery project, as well continue sharing and developing project plans with regulators, stakeholders, and the surrounding community, including the Watji Nyoongar People, traditional owners of the land hosting the Kwinana operations.