BP has advanced its plans to develop hydrogen production at its Kwinana site in Western Australia, with the award of a significant engineering contract and the completion of a feasibility study.

The oil major has awarded French technology company Technip Energies a contract for the engineering, procurement and fabrication of a hydrogen production unit. The plant will use Technip’s proprietary SMIR technology to produce hydrogen either from natural gas or from biogas generated by BP’s Kwinana biorefinery. It will have a production capacity of 33,000cm/hr. The precise value of the contract was not disclosed but Technip said it would fall within a range of €50–250m ($54–272m).

143t/d – Base case output of Kwinana hub

BP has also completed a concept development phase study of a project to develop a large-scale green hydrogen hub at Kwinana, aimed at supplying both the domestic and export markets.

The study identified two potential base case scenarios, with the hub producing either 44t/d or 143t/d of green hydrogen. A potential target of 429t/d was selected as the third and final case. With the study complete, BP closer to achieving a FID for the hub, called H2Kwinana. 

"With the completion of this feasibility study Western Australia is a step closer to the creation of a green hydrogen hub,” said Hydrogen Industry Minister Bill Johnston. "Kwinana has been a central hub of fuel operations for the past 65 years, the potential development of a green hydrogen hub would progress the decarbonisation of the Kwinana Industrial Area.”

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Author: Stuart Penson