Topsoe A/S (Lyngby, Denmark) will deliver technology to HIF Global’s (HIF) planned eFuels facility in Texas. The plant will produce carbon-neutral fuel – enough to decarbonize over 400,000 vehicles annually.
eFuels are produced by combining green hydrogen made from renewable power, and recycled carbon dioxide. HIF´s facility in Texas will help remove 2 million tons of CO2 from the air every year.
HIF´s eFuels plant will be built in Matagorda County in Texas. It will produce 200 million gallons per year of a carbon-neutral gasoline that can be used in today´s cars and gas stations with no modifications required. The power requirement for the plant will be 2 GW, where 90% is consumed by electrolyzers for the green hydrogen production process. The eGasoline produced will meet the strict California specifications for conventional gasoline. Start of construction is expected by 2023 and first production by 2026.
Topsoe is delivering basic engineering and license for methanol synthesis and TIGAST gasoline synthesis technologies. Later in the project, Topsoe’s scope will be extended to supply methanol reactors and catalysts.
Roeland Baan, CEO at Topsoe, said: “We are proud that HIF Global has selected our technology for this truly innovative project which will contribute to decarbonizing US transportation. This is our first involvement in a commercial scale Power-to-X facility producing gasoline. Our technology will be used to directly convert renewable hydrogen and CO2 to methanol, which is further converted into plug and play gasoline. We are excited to showcase our capabilities in this field and apply the Topsoe methanol and TIGAST technology for eFuels.”
The gasoline synthesis from methanol has been commercially proven in a 15,000-bbl/d plant in Turkmenistan since 2019.
Renato Pereira, CEO at HIF USA, said: “We look forward to partnering with Topsoe and utilizing its state-of-the-art technology within our Matagorda County facility. Carbon-neutral eFuels represent the energy sector’s next frontier, enabling renewable resources to fuel our mobile economy.”