Air Products has signed an additional hydrogen supply contract with Motiva Enterprises. Under the terms of the agreement, Air Products will supply additional hydrogen to Motiva’s Convent refinery in Louisiana.
The hydrogen is delivered from Air Products’ Gulf Coast pipeline supply network. The contract also includes supply of few hydrogen products to other Motiva’s Convent and other Motiva’s refineries in Louisiana and Texas through the pipeline network.
Hydrogen is a key component utilized in the petroleum refining processes to discard impurities in crude oil, including aromatics, olefins, sulfur and others. The removal of such impurities enables cleaner burning of diesel and gasoline. Thus, hydrogen plays an important role in the generation of cleaner fuels required by the recent internal combustion engines.
Motiva’s Convent refinery has been receiving hydrogen from Air Products since 2006. Air Products is currently working to connect the hydrogen pipelines in Texas and Louisiana to form the largest hydrogen pipeline supply network in the world.
In 2010, an announcement has been made by Air Products to build a new pipeline of 180-mi length. This pipeline will join the company’s Louisiana hydrogen system and the Texas hydrogen system creating an integrated pipeline system. This system will connect more than 600 mi of pipelines and more than 20 hydrogen facilities. The new integrated Gulf Coast pipeline network will serve the refinery and petrochemical industries in Louisiana and Texas by supplying more than 1.2 billion cu ft of hydrogen every day. The operation of the system is expected to commence in 2012.