There’s a buzz in Baytown, Texas. The city just outside of Houston is already home to one of ExxonMobil’s largest integrated refining and chemical complexes. It’s also the site of the company’s recently announced plan to build a world-scale blue hydrogen facility.
*Editor’s note: As of January 2023, ExxonMobil has awarded another contract for the next stage of the project at our Baytown integrated facility. Over 98% of the CO2 produced at the facility is expected to be safely captured and stored, making this the largest low-carbon project in the world at planned startup in 2027-2028. The future Baytown hydrogen plant plans to help ExxonMobil and our customers reduce emissions by switching to a low-carbon hydrogen fuel source.
Blue hydrogen is a low-carbon fuel produced from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS). This clean-burning fuel produces zero CO2 when combusted, meaning it can play a vital role in a lower-emission future.
Combining hydrogen with carbon capture and storage in places like Baytown supports ExxonMobil’s larger 2050 net-zero ambitions for its Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Once online, the new facility could produce up to 1 billion cubic feet a day of blue hydrogen that can be used to help fuel the existing Baytown complex as well as other industrial facilities in the area. The CCS portion of the process could capture up to 10 million metric tons of CO2 a year and will be one of the world’s largest CCS projects. Fueling the Baytown facility with blue hydrogen could significantly reduce the olefin plant’s CO2 emissions, and cut emissions up to 30% across the integrated complex.
“This is a big step for the company because it enables us to reduce the emissions of the products made at Baytown,” said Michael Bey, a venture executive at ExxonMobil. “Some of those products include chemicals that are the precursor for things like medical supplies, car parts, cell phones and other plastics that are essential to our modern lives.”
To accomplish this project, a team of dedicated ExxonMobil researchers, planners and engineers is working to bring it to life and usher in the next generation of lower-emission operations at Baytown.
Hear more from the team on what the project means to them, the Greater Houston area and society at large.
Learn more about our efforts in Baytown and beyond when it comes to reducing carbon emissions.