Air Products subsidiary starts construction on Saudi hydrogen production hub

A Saudi-based subsidiary of industrial gases supplier Air Products has launched construction on a 413,525 kg/day hydrogen and industrial gases hub that will match a similar-sized Texas facility it announced last month, the company said Monday.

The plant will produce hydrogen from the SMR process, using steam and heat to convert natural gas into hydrogen. Hydrogen is used to remove sulfur in petroleum and to produce ammonia for fertilizer.

The project does not include carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, but will enable customers in the Jubail Industrial City "to achieve higher values for off-gases and introduce new technologies to convert low-value feedstocks into high-value products," the company said.

This investment includes building the second hydrogen fueling station in Saudi Arabia at the site. Saudi Aramco and Air Products inaugurated the first hydrogen fueling station in Saudi Arabia at Air Products' new Technology Center in the Dhahran Techno Valley Science Park in June 2019.

The project also includes plans to build an air separation unit to produce oxygen and nitrogen, a hydrogen pressure swing adsorption unit to recover hydrogen from off-gases and the installation of pipeline networks to transport industrial gases to refining and chemical customers around the region, Air Products said.

Air Products Qudra is a joint venture between Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania-based Air Products and Qudra Energy, a subsidiary of a Saudi development and investment company Vision Invest.

Last month, Air Products announced it would make a $500 million investment to build and operate its largest steam methane reformer (SMR) to produce hydrogen for Gulf Coast Ammonia. The SMR plant also will produce roughly 175 million scf/d, or 413,525 kg/day of hydrogen, and will connect to Air Products roughly 700-mile hydrogen pipeline system that spans from Texas City, Texas to New Orleans.

Air Products Qudra will build, own and operate the Saudi facility, which is slated for a 2023 opening. Air Products said.

S&P Global Platts in December launched new hydrogen prices for SMR without CCS in the US Gulf Coast, California and the Netherlands. Platts assessed the production costs of Dutch hydrogen SMR without CCS (including CAPEX and carbon) at Eur1.2580/kg Friday, down Eur0.1116/kg from the start of the year.