Technical & economic proposal: Blue hydrogen to improve the atmosphere (BIA)

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) has determined that the growing hydrogen demand has warranted the preliminary design of a new Blue Hydrogen Plant on the U.S Gulf Coast. This Blue Hydrogen plant is hoped to support the hydrogen demand within the vicinity and lay the groundwork of greener hydrogen future. This preliminary design aimed to determine the economic viability of the Blue Hydrogen Project, as well as determine an effective process to capture the CO₂ produced to minimize environmental effects. The proposed design produces 250 MMSCFD of hydrogen through Autothermal Reforming of methane and utilizes pressure swing adsorption to recover the produced hydrogen, and a monoethanolamine (MEA) scrubber to capture the CO₂. Safety concerns for this process are due to the possibility of a runaway reaction, loss of containment and potentially catastrophic results if the hazardous gases contained in this process are exposed to the atmosphere. To make this process inherently safer, a detailed control system has been designed for the Auto Thermal Reforming unit since it must operate well above the temperature and pressure envelope. To minimize risk further, hazard identification was conducted for each chemical present within the process and a hazard and operability study (HAZOP) was conducted on the largest unit and the largest distillation column. Economic analysis was performed on the proposed design for an evaluation life of 20 years, including FEL-3 and construction time, at a tax rate of 35%. The net present value of the proposed design is $1.71B, and the discounted cash flow rate of return is 26%. A total fixed capital investment of $2.05B is required to purchase the necessary equipment. FEL-3 is estimated to cost $164M. To further investigate the economic viability of the plant, a sensitivity analysis on the price of H2 and CO2 was conducted. The breakeven price of H₂ was determined to be $1.40 per kg. The payback period for the project is 8.7 years, so Company A will obtain positive cash flow by the BIA plant by August 2033. The overall probability of success for the proposed project is 98.6%. Therefore, the proposed BIA plant project should be pursued because it is an economically attractive opportunity for Company A.