US LNG equipment specialist Air Products has revealed plans to build a $4.5 billion blue hydrogen complex in Louisiana.
Air Products said in a statement it would build, own and operate the mega project, which would produce over 750 million standard cubic feet per day of blue hydrogen in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.
The firm said it would produce “blue” products utilizing hydrocarbons as a feedstock, while also capturing the carbon dioxide (CO2) in the production process for permanent sequestration.
Largest-ever US investment
According to the firm, the project would create 170 permanent jobs with a total annual payroll of $15.9 million and more than 2,000 construction jobs over three years.
It represents Air Products’ largest-ever investment in the US.
Air Products plans to compress a portion of the blue hydrogen and supply it to customers via the company’s US Gulf Coast hydrogen pipeline network.
The network is the largest hydrogen pipeline system in the world, stretching more than 700-miles from Galveston Bay in Texas to New Orleans, Louisiana, Air Products said.
Today, this US Gulf Coast pipeline network can supply customers with more than 1.6 billion cubic feet of hydrogen per day from about 25 production facilities, including blue hydrogen from Air Products’ Port Arthur, Texas facility.
The Port Arthur facility has captured about one million tons of CO2 annually since 2013, with the CO2 transported via pipeline and utilized for enhanced oil recovery operations.
Air Products said it would use the balance of the blue hydrogen from the new Ascension Parish facility to make blue ammonia for onward transportation around the world.
The blue hydrogen can be used for transportation and other markets.
Carbon capture
The project would also feature the world’s largest instance of CO2 capture for permanent sequestration and produce only blue products, according to Air Products.
Air Products says it would capture, compress and transport about 95 percent of the CO2 generated at the facility by pipeline to multiple inland sequestration sites located along a pipeline corridor extending up to 35 miles to the east of the facility.
It plans to permanently sequester over five million metric tons per year of CO2 in geologic pore space secured from Louisiana about one mile beneath the surface.
Air Products has already received approval from the State Mineral and Energy Board, which is part of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, for the permanent sequestration of the CO2.
The firm expects the giant project to go online in 2026.
This new development follows Air Products’ announcement in June 2021 for a multi-billion-dollar hydrogen energy complex in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and its previous announcement of the green ammonia production facility joint venture in NEOM, Saudi Arabia.