Air Products and ExxonMobil have inaugurated a new hydrogen production plant in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
The new plant, which will incorporate ExxonMobil's refinery, will increase energy efficiency by up to 15% and reduce CO2 emissions by 200,000 tonnes per year (tpa).
"The Dutch government and local authorities also played an important role in helping us to deliver a plant that, by design, minimises the loss of heat to the environment and reduces the natural gas requirement," said Jeff Byrne, Air Products' global vice president and general manager - Tonnage Gases.
"As a location, the ExxonMobil Botlek site provides significant synergy in terms of our products and feedstock flow. It also allows us to connect the new plant into our extensive Rotterdam hydrogen pipeline network, which supplies hydrogen to several other customers in the region."
The new hydrogen plant, along with ExxonMobil refinery's excess gas, also utilises advanced processes and technologies, to produce hydrogen.
The refinery in turn uses the evolved hydrogen for the desulphurisation of oil products and in the manufacture of petrochemicals.
Air Products, along with its contractor Technip, began construction of the new hydrogen plant in June 2010 and finished it late last year.
Air Products provides atmospheric, process and speciality gases, performance materials, equipment, and technology to the semiconductor materials, refinery hydrogen, coal gasification, natural gas liquefaction, and advanced coatings and adhesives industries.
ExxonMobil, co-owner of the Rotterdam-Antwerp Pipeline, TEAM Terminal and MOT, has a refinery, several chemical plants, a lube oil blending plant and a network of service stations in Netherlands.
