HIF selects electrolyzers for Texas efuels project

HIF Global has selected Siemens Energy to supply electrolyzers for its planned efuels project in Matagorda County, Texas, said the company.

The agreement with Siemens will allow for electrolyzer deliveries which could support the start of the project's construction as early as the first part of 2024, said Cesar Norton, CEO of HIF Global. HIF and Siemens are engaged in front end engineering and design for 1.8 GW of “Silyzer 300” polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers that will use renewable energy to separate hydrogen from water, resulting in about 300,000 tonnes/year of hydrogen, HIF said.

The green hydrogen will be utilised together with recycled carbon dioxide (CO2) to produce carbon-neutral efuels, which are chemically equivalent to fuels used today, the company said. It indicated a 2027 startup timeline for the Matagorda project.

Siemens added that in order to ramp up the hydrogen and power-to-X industry, new projects were needed, including large-scale ones, along with committed investors and off-takers.

Agreements such as the one with HIF gave Siemens “planning certainty, creating the basis for ramping up the technology and the industry as a whole,” said Stefano Innocenzi, senior vice president, Sustainable Energy Systems, at Siemens Energy.

We remind, HIF Global and Baker Hughes announced an agreement to cooperate on the development of technology to capture carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere (CO2 Direct Air Capture” or DAC). More specifically, HIF Global and Baker Hughes intend to test Baker Hughes’ Mosaic DAC technology pilot units to accelerate DAC deployment at commercial scale.

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Eni has signed a two-year contract with logistics firm the Spinelli Group to provide diesel produced by 100% renewable raw materials to help power its fleet, said the company.

The hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) is available at 57 service stations, will be available at 150 sales points in Italy by the end of the month and will be used by 150 vehicles in the Spinelli Group fleet. Eni Sustainable Mobility has been operating since January, combining biomethane and sale of mobility-related products across more than 5,000 service stations in Italy and abroad.

Supply of HVO will be handled through a fuel card system designed by the Eni subsidiary for small, medium, and large hauliers depending on their needs. HVO is a biofuel made from waste raw materials such as vegetable residue and oils produced from crops that are not in competition with food.

Eni is supplied through a network of agri-hubs currently being developed in several African countries, with raw materials processed at bio-refineries in Venice and Gela, Italy where it is processed using proprietary technology to make biofuel.

The Spinelli Group operates across the entire supply chain for the container sector from containers arriving in ports to delivery of the final customer, and this will help the firm to decarbonise and design ESG policies.

We remind, Eni S.p.A. reported its fourth-quarter and full-year earnings results, revealing its net profit annually tumbled 84% to EUR550 million, or diluted earnings per share of EUR0.97. The company's adjusted operating profit remained mostly unchanged in the same period at EUR3.8 billion. In 2022, both Eni's net and operating profit more than doubled versus a year earlier to reach record EUR13.81 billion and EUR20.39 billion, respectively.

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North American chemical railcar traffic fell 2.1% year on year to 47,515 loadings for the week ended 4 March, with traffic falling in both the US and Canada, according to the latest freight rail data by the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

The decline came after in the week before, ended 25 February, chemical rail traffic registered a first increase after 22 straight year on year declines.

For the first nine weeks of 2023 ended 4 March, North American chemical rail traffic was down 3.8% year on year to 404,690, with US traffic down 7.3%, to 287,591 loadings.

In the US, chemical railcar loadings represent about 20% of chemical transportation by tonnage, with trucks, barges and pipelines carrying the rest. In Canada, chemical producers rely on rail to ship more than 70% of their products, with some exclusively using rail.

We remind, North American chemical railcar traffic rose 0.9% year on year to 45,887 loading for the week ended 25 February – marking the first increase after 22 straight declines. Loadings rose in Canada and Mexico but continued to fall in the US. For the first eight weeks of 2023 ended 25 February, North American chemical rail traffic was down 4.0% year on year to 357,193, with US traffic down 8.0%, to 253,310 loadings.

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Marathon Petroleum has acquired a 49.9% interest in renewable natural gas (RNG) company LF Bioenergy for USD50m, said the company.

Marathon may pay a potential additional USD50m, based on certain earn-out targets. Dallas, Texas-based LF Bioenergy is described as an emerging RNG company, focused on developing and growing a portfolio of dairy farm-based, low carbon intensity RNG projects.

Its first facility, located in upstate New York, is nearing completion and expected to come into service in the first half of 2023. Marathon expects to fund its share of LF's capital expenditures as it hits specific project milestones, building out a portfolio to produce more than 6,500 MMBtu/day by the end of 2026, it said.

In a separate statement, LF said that Marathon "has invested in LF at a valuation of USD100m, with the potential to increase to USD200m as LF achieves pre-determined earn-out targets". LF is backed by private equity firm Cresta Fund Management.

In related news, Shell recently acquired 100% of Danish RNG producer Nature Energy, and Canadian energy infrastructure major Enbridge agreed to acquire a 10% stake in Divert, a US company that turns food waste into RNG.

We remind, Marathon Petroleum’s Q3 net income rose more than six-fold year on year to USD4.5bn, with the refining and marketing (R&M) margin more than doubling. Crude capacity utilisation was about 98%, with total throughput of 3.0m bbl/day in Q3 – compared with 93% and 2.8m bbl/day, respectively, in Q3 2021.

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HIF Global is considering olefins production for the second phase of the eFuels project that it is developing in Texas, in which the company will convert carbon dioxide (CO2) and green hydrogen into methanol, said the company.

If HIF pursues an olefins project, it would convert the material into jet fuel, said Meg Gentle, executive director of HIF Global. She made her comments during the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference. The company still needs to complete testing with aviation agencies to make sure the material produced by HIF can be certified as aviation fuel, Gentle said.

The Texas project is in Matagorda County, and the first phase will convert methanol into gasoline. The electrolysers for the green-hydrogen portion of the project will come from Siemens and they can produce about 300,000 tonnes/year of hydrogen.

Topsoe is providing the technology to convert the hydrogen and CO2 into methanol. Construction on the first phase could start in 2024, and operations could start in 2027. HIF already has a demonstration plant in Punta Arenas, Chile. It started production in 2022.

We remind, HIF Global started producing its first litres of fuel using green hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) at a demonstration plant in southern Chile. The Haru Oni plant is in Punta Arenas, Chile, and it should begin full commercial operations in March 2023, HIF said. It will produce 350 tonnes/year of methanol and 130,000 litres/year of gasoline. Haru Oni relies on electrolysers to produce green hydrogen and direct-air capture (DAC) to extract CO2 from the atmosphere. The two gases are combined to produce methanol.

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