Clean hydrogen energy produced from a repurposed gasification plant

Honeywell announce Wabash Valley Resources LLC has selected a range of Honeywell UOP technologies to capture and sequester up to 1.65 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually and to produce clean hydrogen energy from a repurposed gasification plant in West Terre Haute, Ind. The project is expected to be one of the largest carbon sequestration initiatives in the United States to date.

“By implementing Honeywell UOP’s proven technologies for the capture of CO2 and hydrogen purification, we will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said Dan Williams, Managing Director of Wabash Valley Resources. “This project will allow for market access to clean hydrogen, as well as support the domestic growth of the hydrogen economy.”

“Adding carbon capture and storage to hydrogen production is an economical solution for many companies looking to make significant progress on their sustainability goals,” said Laura Leonard, vice president and general manager, UOP Process Technologies. “Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can provide a low-carbon solution across almost every industry—petrochemical and refining, buildings, commercial, transportation and power generation. Customers like Wabash trust Honeywell UOP to provide optimized technology solutions to meet project requirements.”

UOP will provide technology licenses, basic engineering, and specialty equipment including a modular MOLSIV™ molecular sieve dehydration unit, modular Ortloff CO2 Fractionation unit, and Polybed™ pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit to sequester carbon dioxide and process synthesis gas from the gasification unit.

The Ortloff CO2 Fractionation technology will produce a high-purity liquid CO2 stream while separating a hydrogen-rich stream that will be purified by the PSA unit. The CO2 stream will be sent for permanent geological storage, while the hydrogen stream can fuel a hydrogen turbine to generate electrical power.. The hydrogen stream can also be used in chemical synthesis, or marketed as a clean transportation fuel.

As noted in a recent U.S. Department of Energy hydrogen plan, a study by the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association estimates the hydrogen economy can generate as much as $140 billion per year in revenue and create 700,000 U.S. jobs by 2030. At projected growth rates, this could grow to $750 billion per year in revenue and 3.4 million jobs by 2050. 

UOP’s range of solutions for hydrogen purification (Honeywell H2 Solutions) and CO2 separation (Honeywell CO2 Solutions) can be optimized for any use application. The technologies include:

UOP molecular sieve (MOLSIV) technology, which is used in a wide range of operating conditions in more than 2,400 units worldwide. MOLSIV, which has been around for more than 60 years, can be used for acid gas removal, dehydration, hydrocarbon removal and desulfurization of various gas and liquid gas streams including syngas, natural gas and gas liquids such as propane and butane.

The Ortloff CO2 Fractionation process, which can efficiently remove 80% of the CO2 content contained in the syngas stream; the remaining CO2 is subsequently removed by the PSA unit. The recovered CO2 is produced as a liquid for easy pressurization, transportation, and sequestration.

The PSA process, which uses proprietary UOP adsorbents to remove impurities at high pressure from hydrogen-containing process streams, producing high purity hydrogen. The Polybed PSA system can also recover and purify hydrogen from ethylene off-gas, methanol off-gas and partial-oxidation synthesis gas.

UOP Modular systems are skid-mounted units including hardware, adsorbents, control systems and embedded process technology. This allows quick and efficient installation to reduce cost and downtime when compared to “stick-built” construction.