Our engineers built the world’s largest H₂ plant complex to generate the huge streams of hydrogen required by the customer. It includes eight steam reformers that produce synthesis gas – a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In total, 670,000 standard cubic meters of H₂ can be generated per hour from this syngas. Linde is regarded as the leading provider of steam reforming plants worldwide, having already built more than 200 steam reformers with capacities ranging from 300 to 200,000 standard cubic meters of hydrogen per hour. Natural gas is typically used as the H₂ feedstock. As it is a fossil resource, experts refer to this kind of hydrogen as gray hydrogen. 

Refinery residues such as petroleum coke is another potential source of H₂, and was the feedstock chosen by Linde’s refinery and petrochemical customer. It is a by-product of refining operations. To generate hydrogen from this feedstock, the petroleum coke has to be heated to very high temperatures together with oxygen and steam in special units known as gasifiers. This partial oxidation process generates a raw synthesis gas, which is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other by-products.

The purified syngas or the gaseous hydrogen extracted from it is distributed via a pipeline network, which brings the gas to the precise point of use at the industrial complex. The customer is also planning to use the hydrogen as a fuel for vehicles. This will require transportable H₂ containers and, further down the line, on-site cryogenic tanks. The refinery and petrochemical customer currently uses half of the syngas for electrical power generation by gas turbines and heating across different processes. In future, however, the company also wants to use it to manufacture chemicals such as glycol, dimethyl ether and acetic acid (synthesis). Linde Hydrogen FuelTech has already developed refueling concepts with the potential to drive widespread commercialization of hydrogen as a future-fit fuel. Our hydrogen experts draw on a wealth of experience here to provide our customers with best technical and budgetary fit for their needs. To gain initial experience in H₂ fueling on the ground, the refinery and petrochemical customer is currently focusing on buses. At the same time, it is also making plans to gradually build out a hydrogen infrastructure. This includes adding hydrogen refueling capabilities to existing conventional fueling stations along a key transport artery in the region. As some of these locations are up to 1,000 kilometers away from the H₂ production units at the refinery site, the experts at Linde Hydrogen FuelTech have integrated capabilities to transport cryogenic liquid hydrogen as produced by liquefaction units of Linde Kryotechnik into their concept.