BOC-Foster Wheeler celebrate launch of England's biggest hydrogen plant on Teesside
The largest hydrogen production plant in England - built by Foster Wheeler and owned and operated by BOC - has come on stream at Huntsman's manufacturing operations on Teesside.
The £30 million hydrogen plant at Huntsman's North Tees site near Seal Sands will supply up to 32,000 tonnes a year of high purity hydrogen by pipeline to Huntsman's production facilities at Wilton and North Tees. Under a 15 year supply agreement with Huntsman the plant will also supply 100 tonne an hour of high pressure steam to the North Tees site.
Huntsman will use the hydrogen on Teesside as a key feedstock for its polyurethanes raw materials manufacturing operations at Wilton and its aromatics production complex at North Tees.
Design and construction of the plant, which included the building of a new pipeline infrastructure under the River Tees, was undertaken and managed by Foster Wheeler Energy Limited under the business alliance with BOC. The plant utilises Foster Wheeler's proprietary TERRACE WALLTM Steam Methane Reforming Furnace. The operation of the new plant will be managed as part of BOC's existing Teesside facility, one of the largest industrial gases complexes in Europe.
The plant is at the cutting edge of environmental advances and is the first in the Teesside area and the first in the UK oil refinery sector to be awarded an Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control permit by the Environment Agency. Under new legislation, operators must demonstrate that they operate plants in a way that prevents or minimises emissions to air, land or water.
Dick Grant, BOC's chief executive, Process Gas Solutions, said: "We are delighted to have been involved in this tremendously exciting project which will bring many benefits to Huntsman, a company which we recognise as being of key importance to the development of the chemical industry on Teesside. This new plant extends and strengthens our supply capability for our customers on Teesside and further consolidates BOC's position as the leading supplier of all industrial gases in this area, which is particularly important given its position as a world class chemical manufacturing centre. The plant has also been built on time and on budget with no safety incidents."
Ian Bill, chairman and chief executive, Foster Wheeler Energy Limited, said: "Foster Wheeler is very pleased that this project has reached a safe and successful conclusion ahead of schedule. The combined strengths of our alliance with BOC in technology, project execution and plant operations have enabled us to develop a unique and value-adding solution to fully meet Huntsman's requirements. This project in Teesside is one of eleven projects awarded to us since the establishment of Foster Wheeler's Hydrogen Centre of Excellence in Reading. The project was executed from our full-service Teesside Operations centre which, being only four miles from the construction site, gave us additional benefits: excellent communications and a local, responsive team."
The project - which was completed in early 2002 - will lead to greater job security within the organisations involved. The plant was built on time and on budget, with no safety incidents in over 400,000 hours worked.
In addition to the £30 million investment on the plant itself, a further £10 million has been spent on associated new infrastructure, pipelines and high purity water supplies by Huntsman and Hartlepool water company h2go Ltd, a subsidiary of Anglian Water.
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