The first commercial plant had been inaugurated in January 2016

04/12/2023

Source: Energy & Management Powernews

Honeywell is entering the LOHC market and wants to make the long-distance transport of hydrogen more efficient and also include decommissioned oil refinery plants in the process.

For the replacement of Russian natural gas, Germany is currently increasingly relying on LNG - that is, natural gas that is liquefied by strong cooling to about minus 161 degrees Celsius. Once it reaches its destination, the cargo is vaporized again and distributed via pipelines. However, cooling, liquefaction and transport, as well as re-vaporization, require a great deal of energy. In addition, there are only relatively few ships that can transport hydrogen in liquid form. Alternative approaches include using ammonia as a hydrogen carrier medium to make it easier to transport the hydrogen.

Another approach is LOHC, which Honeywoll and its subsidiary UOP, formerly known as "Universal Oil Products," now want to rely on. UOP builds and licenses equipment for petroleum refineries. LOHC stands for "Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier." The term refers to liquid organic compounds that can absorb and release hydrogen through chemical reaction (see below).

In Honeywell's LOHC solution, hydrogen is converted to a liquid carrier through a saturation process with the hydrocarbon toluene. This, Honeywell assures, is compatible with and can be transported over the infrastructure that exists for gasoline or similar hydrocarbons. Once at its destination, the hydrogen can be recovered from the carrier in the form of a dehydrogenation process. Existing, decommissioned oil refinery plants could be used for this purpose. These could be converted, Honeywell adds, so that the hydrogen can be released from the liquid carrier and used.

Solution ready for immediate use

Bryan Glover, president of Honeywell UOP, is certain: "Our LOHC solution can help with the energy transition because it uses existing refinery facilities and offers comprehensive solutions for the entire hydrogen value chain. From production and conversion to transmission, storage, distribution and use, our out-of-the-box solution can be used to make operations safer, more efficient and more reliable."

What is LOHC?

The abbreviation LOHC stands for "Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier". In this process, hydrogen is chemically bonded to liquid organic hydrogen carriers via a catalyst. The carrier medium is a petroleum-based carbon compound, such as dibenzyltoluene. Together with the LOHC carrier medium, the hydrogen is stored in tanks at ambient temperature and pressure. With the aid of heat, the bound hydrogen can be released again in a catalytic reaction. The organic carrier liquid is not consumed during the hydrogenation and dehydrogenation process and can be reused very often.

The world's first commercial LOHC plant for storing hydrogen in dibenzyltoluene was inaugurated in January 2016. It was developed and built by Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH, based in Erlangen near Nuremberg (Bavaria). Co-participants in Hydrogenious include Covestro and Mitsubishi. In a consortium with MAN Energy Solution, the Erlangen-based company is working on a hydrogen storage system (we reported).

Author: Davina Spohn