LG Chem announces 50,000 ton Hydrogen project for 2024 with circular CO2

In South Korea, LG Chem said it will construct a plant in Daesan, Korea, with the capacity to produce 50,000 tons of hydrogen annually by Q2 2024. This plant will be the first LG Chem site to produce pure hydrogen, apart from those earned as off-gases. The new plant employs technology which converts methane to hydrogen by creating a chemical reaction under high-temperature steam. Hydrogen will be made from methane off-gases generated by the naphtha cracking center in the process of producing feedstocks. These hydrogen will then be depolymerized under high-temperature to be used as fuel again.

Construction of LG Chem’s hydrogen plant is expected to commence in the first half of 2023 and scheduled for completion by the second quarter of 2024. Once fully operational, LG Chem expects the plant to reduce carbon emissions by 140,000 tons annually – equivalent to 1 million newly-planted trees – by replacing methane used in the NCC process with high-purity hydrogen, which does not create carbon dioxide (CO2) during combustion.

“The establishment of our hydrogen plant and CO2 circulation system is an effort to create a sustainable future for our petrochemical business by achieving carbon neutrality,” said Noh Kug-lae, head of Petrochemical Business at LG Chem. “Hydrogen will allow us to convert our petrochemical pyrolysis to a more sustainable low-carbon process.”

The petrochemical industry produces base chemicals such as ethylene, propylene and butadiene which are made by breaking down naphtha at high temperatures. Methane is commonly used as a heat source for the NCC process which generates a large amount of carbon emissions.

More than 90 percent of hydrogen in the Korean market is produced using the steam methane reforming process that extracts hydrogen from methane, which is composed of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The resulting CO2 off-gas has for long been viewed as an unwanted byproduct.