Air Liquide, Chevron, LyondellBasell, and Uniper to pursue hydrogen in US

Air Liquide, Chevron Corporation, LyondellBasell, and Uniper SE to collaborate on a joint study that will evaluate and potentially advance the development of a hydrogen and ammonia production facility along the US Gulf Coast.

The facility could support industrial decarbonization and mobility applications in the region and expand clean ammonia exports, helping to increase the supply of lower carbon power internationally.

The potential project to be studied is to cover the end-to-end energy value chain, utilizing each participant’s technical expertise in production, operational experience, storage, distribution, and export logistics.

Collectively, the consortium will bring capabilities and expertise in air separation technology, hydrogen technologies, lower carbon intensity and renewable natural gas, carbon capture and storage (CCS), electrolysis-based technologies, and petrochemicals.

Specifically, the consortium will assess the potential for producing hydrogen using natural gas with CCS and renewable hydrogen via electrolysis to supply end-use markets, including the ammonia, petrochemicals, power, and mobility markets.

If development proceeds, the project could leverage existing advantages along the Gulf Coast, including pipeline infrastructure, to supply lower carbon and renewable hydrogen to local industrial clusters. Likewise, ammonia infrastructure could support exports to both Europe and the Asia Pacific region.

Adam Peters, CEO of Air Liquide North America, said, “The Gulf Coast is the ideal location to model hydrogen and carbon capture technologies as immediate pathways to decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors.”

Austin Knight, VP at Chevron New Energies, said, “Across the value chain, collaborations are critical to developing a hydrogen ecosystem, and this is an example of bringing together leaders in the space to explore lower carbon hydrogen opportunities and to contribute complementary expertise.”

Aaron Ledet, SVP at LyondellBasell, said, “We look forward to collaborating with the members of this consortium to continue evaluating and advancing clean hydrogen as a potential solution for reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of our US Gulf Coast manufacturing assets.”

Marc Merrill, CEO of Uniper in North America, said, “Uniper is committed to the green expansion of our Wilhelmshaven LNG receiving terminal in Germany and expects to receive and store roughly 1 MTPA of clean ammonia at the port by the end of the decade. US Gulf Coast supply from this initiative can be critical to meeting that goal.”