Chemical Engineering May 2023 - 13

emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
And tax incentives contained in the
U.S. Inflation Reduction Act of 2022
(IRA), as well as grant opportunities
under the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act of 2021 (IIJA), have
also encouraged action.
Relative to hydrogen, Wood Mackenzie's
Gelder says " governmental
policy is key to changing the economic
calculus for carbon capture
technology [as required for " blue " hydrogen]
and electrolyzers [for " green "
H2], but also the local environment,
site-specific and cluster-specific geography
and economies of scale also
make a big difference. " Green hydrogen
from electrolysis of water, and
blue hydrogen from steam-methane
reforming (SMR), partial oxidation or
autothermal reforming coupled with
carbon capture, are technically viable,
but the challenge is on the commercial
side - everything you could
do to improve refining operations
requires investment and adds complexity
to the refinery, says Gelder.
" There have been a lot of pilot-scale
projects and smaller-scale processes
using these technologies, but they
have not been scaled widely.
A recent report from industry analyst
firm IDTechEx (Cambridge, U.K.;
www.idtechex.com) forecasts the
global blue hydrogen market to reach
$34 billion by 2033. " CCUS infrastructure
has significant government
backing and is being developed by
companies
worldwide
to
capture
and store emissions from various
industries by locating infrastructure
near industrial clusters. These forces
are accelerating blue hydrogen production,
which is expected to grow
as global decarbonization efforts intensify, "
the report says.
In January 2023, ExxonMobil Corp.
(Irving, Texas; www.exxonmobil.com)
granted a front-end engineering and
design (FEED) contract to Technip
Energies N.V. (Nanterre, France;
www.technipenergies.com) for what
would be the world's largest low-carbon
hydrogen facility at ExxonMobil's
integrated refining and petrochemicals
complex in Baytown, Texas. The
Shutterstock
FIGURE 2. The global blue-hydrogen market is
forecast to reach $34 billion by 2033
low-carbon hydrogen, ammonia and
carbon capture facility in Baytown is
expected to produce 1 billion ft3/d of
low-carbon H2 at its planned startup
in 2027-2028, ExxonMobil says.
More than 98% of the associated
CO2 produced by the facility (around
7 million metric tons per year) is expected
to be captured and permanently
stored, the company says. The
CCS network being developed for
the project will be made available for
use by third-party CO2 emitters in the
area in support of their decarbonization
efforts.
ExxonMobil also made agreements
with catalyst maker Topsoe
A/S (Lyngby, Denmark; www.topFor
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http://www.idtechex.com http://www.exxonmobil.com http://www.technipenergies.com http://www.topsoe.com http://adlinks.chemengonline.com/84647-05 http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM

Chemical Engineering May 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering May 2023