The Japan arm of multinational chemical company BASF will supply its high-pressure regenerative carbon dioxide (CO2) capture technology to Japan’s INPEX Corporation (INPEX) to be used as part of its Kashiwazaki clean hydrogen/ammonia project.
Developed in partnership between BASF and engineering partner JGC Corporation (JGC), the project marks the country’s first demonstration of the production of blue hydrogen and ammonia from domestically produced natural gas, the use of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) in domestic depleted gas fields and the use of hydrogen for power generation and ammonia production.
The project will see BASF’s HiPACT CO2 capture technology will be integrated into a hydrogen production facility that uses natural gas as a feedstock located in the Hirai area of Kashiwazaki City, Niigata Prefecture, Japan.
Following capture, the partners aim to inject the recovered CO2 into depleted gas reservoirs.
According to BASF, HiPACT releases the CO2 off gas above atmospheric pressure, resulting in the reduction of CO2 capture and compression costs by up to 35% compared with conventional technologies.
A specialised solution that targets natural gas and synthesis gas treatment equipped with CCS or with CO2-enhanced oil/gas recovery (EOR/EGR), HiPACT is a solvent-based CO2 capture method that was first installed at a Serbian natural gas plant in 2015.
The method follows the company’s successful use of OASE gas treating technology which is used to decarbonise natural gas, synthesis gas, flue gas and biogas.
“Following the successful use of BASF’s OASE gas treating technology in another NEDO-funded CCS project in Tomakomai, Japan, we are pleased to provide HiPACT for Japan’s first demonstration project to produce blue hydrogen and ammonia from domestic natural gas,” commented Mami Kawakatsu, Head of Sales, Intermediates Division of BASF Japan.
A highly energy intensive process, ammonia production accounts for around 500 million tonnes of global CO2 emissions each year.
According to Resources for the Future (RFF), blue hydrogen may be the most cost-effective method for reducing carbon emissions in oil refining and ammonia production, but green hydrogen will offer a longer-term pathway to fully decarbonised hydrogen production.
