HIF Global selects FEED team for e-fuels production

US project management company Bechtel Energy, Germany’s Siemens Energy AG and Denmark’s Topsoe A/S have been selected to carry out front-end engineering design (FEED) of HIF Global’s proposed e-fuels production facility in Matagorda County, Texas.

The facility will produce carbon-neutral gasoline using as ingredients green hydrogen extracted with renewable power and around 2 million tonnes of CO2 captured from the atmosphere. The global e-fuels promoter expects to produce some 200 million gallons (750 million litres) of carbon-neutral gasoline per year at Matagorda by 2027.

Naming the FEED team on Tuesday, HIF Global said that Bechtel Energy will conduct the engineering and design of the overall facility. This will include the integration of the Siemens Energy and Topsoe technologies and equipment.

Siemens Energy will be in charge of the engineering and design of their proprietary Silyzer 300 electrolysers, which are to churn out some 300,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year. Topsoe’s job will be to provide engineering and design for the methanol and methanol-to-gasoline processes. At the Matagorda facility, green hydrogen and captured CO2 will form about 1.4 million tonnes of methanol and then synthesised methanol will yield the projected output of 200 million gallons of gasoline per year. According to HIF Global, Matagorda’s e-fuels can be used as drop-in fuel in vehicles in circulation today without any modification to existing engines or infrastructure.

Construction of the Matagorda facility is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2024, while the commercial operations date is seen in 2027.