MOSCOW (MRC) -- BP and Danish renewable
energy group Orsted have partnered to develop zero-carbon hydrogen at a German
oil refinery, BP's first full-scale project in a sector that is expected to grow
rapidly, reported Reuters.
The
project will produce so-called green hydrogen at the Lingen refinery in
north-west Germany through the electrolysis of water using wind power from the
North Sea.
It is in its early stages and initially aims to build a 50
megawatt (MW) electrolyser to replace 20% of natural gas-based hydrogen at the
plant, BP said in a statement. Production is expected to start in
2024.
The project could be expanded to up to 500 MW at a later stage to
replace all of Lingen’s fossil fuel-based hydrogen, Louise Jacobson Plutt, BP’s
senior vice president for hydrogen, told Reuters.
Hydrogen is today
mostly used in the industrial sector as feedstock to make products such as
fuels.
But the use of green hydrogen is expected to grow sharply in the
coming decades as the European Union and governments around the world seek to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
BP aims to expand
its hydrogen output to 10% of the market by 2030.
Green hydrogen is
however much more expensive than natural gas-based, or grey, hydrogen. Reducing
its cost of production will be key to expand the use of the fuel.
“We see
a path to (price) parity with grey hydrogen by the end of the decade” as more
green hydrogen projects are launched and technology advances, Anders Nordstrom,
Orsted vice president for hydrogen said.
The projected cost of the
projected was not disclosed.
As MRC wrote
previously, BP Australia plans to shut its 146,000 b/d Kwinana refinery in
Western Australia and convert it into a fuel import terminal, according to the
company's statment Oct. 30. The continued growth of large scale, export-oriented
refineries throughout Asia and the Middle East has structurally changed the
Australian market, BP said, adding that regional oversupply and sustained low
refining margins mean the Kwinana refinery is no longer economically viable.
Converting the refinery into an import terminal will help ensure ongoing
security of fuel supply for Western Australia, the company said. Refining
activities will wind down over the next six months and conversion works will
carry on out to 2022.
We remind that a “technical defect” disrupted
production at part of the Gelsenkirchen integrated refinery and petrochemicals
complex in Germany, in late October. The company operates plants in the Horst
and Scholven districts at Gelsenkirchen, with the defect occurring at Horst. BP
sais it was working to resume normal operations as soon as possible. It did not
specify which unit has been affected, with sources suggesting it was the fluid
catalytic cracker, but this was not confirmed by the company.
Ethylene
and propylene are feedstocks for producing PE and polypropylene
(PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report,
Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,594,510 tonnes in the first nine
months of 2020, up by 1% year on year. Only high denstiy polyethylene (HDPE)
shipments increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market
reached 880,130 tonnes in the nine months of 2020 (calculated using the formula:
production minus exports plus imports, exluding producers' inventories as of 1
January, 2020). Supply increased exclusively of PP random copolymer.
BP
plc (formerly The British Petroleum Company plc and BP Amoco plc) is a British
multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is
one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors", whose performance in 2012,
made it the world's sixth-largest oil and gas company, the sixth-largest energy
company by market capitalization and the company with the world's 12th-largest
revenue (turnover). It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas
of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining,
distribution and marketing, power generation and trading. It also has renewable
energy interests in biofuels, wind power, smart grid and solar
technology. |