MOSCOW (MRC) -- ExxonMobil affiliate Esso Petroleum Company Limited, SGN and Macquarie’s Green Investment Group (GIG) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the use of hydrogen and carbon capture for a hydrogen hub project in the Southampton industrial cluster, said the company.
Southampton is one of the UK’s largest industrial sectors, and a critical element of the country’s energy supply chains. An initial feasibility study by SGN and GIG estimates that the annual hydrogen demand from the industrial cluster, which is home to ExxonMobil’s Fawley complex could rise to 37 TWh by 2050. This estimate includes heating demand of 800,000 homes across the south of England.
The study also estimates that carbon capture could play a key role to help reduce emissions. Carbon capture facilities placed in the area could capture approximately 2m tonnes/year of carbon dioxide (CO2), including from initial hydrogen production of 4.3 TWh/year of hydrogen. The companies said that if technical and business feasibility is confirmed, they could start hydrogen production as early as 2030, provided they have government support.
SGN, formerly known as Scotland Gas Networks before 2014, manages the pipelines that distribute natural gas and green gas to 5.9m homes and businesses across the region. GIG manages portfolio assets that specialise in green infrastructure investment and project development. It was initially launched by the UK in 2012 as the Green Investment Bank. In 2017 it was bought by Macquarie and combined with the firm’s renewables team, operating under GIG.
As MRC informed previously, ExxonMobil and SABIC have announced that their joint venture, Gulf Coast Growth Ventures located near Corpus Christi, Texas, has reached mechanical completion of a monoethylene glycol (MEG) unit and two polyethylene (PE) units. Project startup is expected to begin ahead of schedule, likely in the fourth quarter of 2021.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
ExxonMobil is the largest non-government owned company in the energy industry and produces about 3% of the world's oil and about 2% of the world's energy.
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