US ExxonMobil awards FEED contract for Baytown blue-hydrogen project

HOUSTON (ICIS)–ExxonMobil awarded a front-end engineering and design (FEED) contract to Technip Energies for a blue hydrogen project at its complex in Baytown, Texas, the US crude oil and petrochmeicals major said on Monday.

ExxonMobil described the contract as the largest of its kind in the world.

The company could make a final investment decision (FID) on the project in 2024. If ExxonMobil proceeds, it could start operations in 2027-2028.

Financial details were not disclosed.

Under the project, ExxonMobil would produce 1bn cubic feet/day of blue hydrogen and capture more than 98% of the associated carbon dioxide (CO2).

That amounts to more than 7m tonnes/year of CO2 that ExxonMobil would capture and permanently store.

ExxonMobil would make the carbon-capture and storage network available to other companies that want to sequester the CO2 produced from their operations.

As far as the hydrogen, ExxonMobil could sell it or use it internally as a fuel for its largest cracker in Baytown.

If the cracker uses hydrogen as a fuel instead of natural gas, it could reduce Baytown’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by up to 30%, the company said.

ExxonMobil could also sell what it described as significant volumes of blue hydrogen and ammonia. Such offtake agreements are under discussion with customers.

ExxonMobil did not provide capacity figures for the ammonia.

Thumbnail shows a tank of hydrogen. Image by Shutterstock.