RE: PHE .HUI.BP13 Nov 2021 13:23
COP26: Powerhouse Energy, HUI target lowest-cost hydrogen from waste plastic with Linde deal
Author James Burgess
Editor James Leech
Commodity Coal, Electric Power, Energy Transition, Natural Gas, Metals, Petrochemicals
HIGHLIGHTS
Targeting Eur1.50/kg hydrogen as byproduct
Turns waste plastic to syngas via pyrolysis
Modular system to produce 1,000 mt/year hydrogen
Powerhouse Energy and Hydrogen Utopia International plan to bring low-cost hydrogen and syngas to industrial gas customers in Europe using waste plastics as a feedstock, signing an agreement with industrial gas and chemicals company Linde at the UN Climate Change Conference.
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Register Now Linde has signed a framework agreement with HUI to use the plastic waste-to-hydrogen technology across Europe, starting with a plant in Poland, HUI said in a statement Nov. 12.
The modular system converts waste plastic at high temperatures to syngas and hydrogen through pyrolysis and cracking of hydrocarbon chains into gases.
Linde Engineering will supply the technology to clean the syngas and extract and process the hydrogen, while HUI will build the waste-to-hydrogen system, HUI said. The project is subject to EU funding approval from the Just Transition Fund.
Each unit is can process 40 mt/day of waste plastic that can't be recycled, producing 14,500 mt/year of syngas and 1,000 mt/year of hydrogen.
HUI has an agreement with Powerhouse to develop the technology in Europe, outside of the UK.
Under the Linde deal, Linde Engineering has a five-year exclusivity option to supply HUI plants in Poland, Hungary and Greece, where HUI has the exclusive rights to the Powerhouse DMG system.
"We're talking with Linde at Eur3/kg ($3.50/kg)" for hydrogen supply without opex subsidy, Howard White, adviser to Hydrogen Utopia on behalf of Powerhouse Energy, told S&P Global Platts in an interview Nov. 11.
"If we wanted to drop the price of hydrogen to Eur2/kg or Eur1.50/kg, we could," he said.
S&P Global Platts assessed the cost of producing renewable hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in Europe at Eur10.14/kg ($11.60/kg) Nov. 11 (Netherlands, including capex), based on month-ahead power prices, though prices based on power purchase agreements are much lower.
Blue hydrogen production by steam methane reforming (including carbon, CCS and capex) was assessed at Eur5.03/kg.
Soaring feedstock power and gas prices have pushed calculated hydrogen production costs dramatically higher in recent weeks, though anticipated production costs for green hydrogen are significantly lower based on falling costs of renewable power generation.
Flexible system
The Powerhouse system has advantages over other low-carbon hydrogen production pathways, White said.
"Our intention is to create the lowest-cost hydrogen available," he said. "The technology enables this because the hydrogen is act