Linde will supply clean hydrogen to Dow’s ‘world-first’ net zero ethylene cracker

LINDE will build a US$2bn facility that will supply clean hydrogen to Dow’s ethylene cracking plant at its manufacturing site in Fort Saskatchewan, Canada.

The facility will produce blue hydrogen for Dow as part of the latter’s Path2Zero project, where it aims to produce 3.2m t/y of low-to-zero emissions ethylene derivatives.

This project adds to Dow’s larger ambition of reducing its annual CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2050.

Reducing emissions via blue hydrogen

Linde’s clean hydrogen and atmospheric gases facility will be built in Alberta, Canada to produce and supply Dow with blue hydrogen and nitrogen.

Blue hydrogen is produced when steam methane reforming (SMR) or autothermal reforming is used to convert natural gas into hydrogen and CO2, with the latter being captured and stored.

Linde has developed a carbon capture solution, HISLOP CC, which uses pressure swing adsorption, cryogenic separation and compression to capture CO2 from process gases at rates of up to 99.7%.

The company expects this facility to capture more than 2m t/y of CO2 for sequestration and recover hydrogen in off-gases from Dow’s ethylene cracker.

Last year, Linde agreed to build a facility with the same process to supply clean hydrogen and nitrogen to OCI’s 1.1m t/y blue ammonia plant on the US Gulf Coast. The company expects operations for this plant to begin next year and aims to sequester more than 1.7m t/y of CO2.

Dow’s net zero plans

Dow’s Path2Zero project, which began construction this year, builds on its earlier environmental success with its Texas-9 ethylene cracker.

Dow says since beginning operations in 2017, Texas-9 has produced 60% lower CO2 emissions per pound of material produced compared to other crackers in its fleet.

Dow’s investment at Fort Saskatchewan will more than triple the site’s ethylene and polyethylene capacity while decarbonising 20% of its ethylene output.

The Linde facility is expected to be complete in 2028.