Japanese industrial conglomerate Mitsubishi announced that it has signed a preliminary agreement for purchasing a stake in ExxonMobil’s hydrogen and ammonia project in Baytown, Texas.
The announcement is seen as signaling the beginning of negotiations rather than their conclusion, with details of the exact size of the stake and volumes for any offtake agreements expected to be confirmed in 2025.
“Demand continues to build for ExxonMobilTM Low Carbon Hydrogen and ammonia,” said Dan Ammann President of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “We look forward to furthering our leadership position, alongside Mitsubishi Corporation, to advance low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia globally, helping the world achieve a lower emission future.”
With a view of beginning operations in 2029 the facility’s output will become part of Japan’s decarbonization efforts while providing heavy industry like steel the necessary volumes to maintain power generation and process heat activities.
“We are excited to be closely collaborating with ExxonMobil to develop low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia supply chains that will bridge the United States and Japan,” Masaru Saito, environmental energy group chief executive with Mitsubishi, said in the statement.
Mitsubishi pointed out the facility will have a capacity reaching 1 billion cubic feet of daily hydrogen production with carbon capture helping prevent 98% of the carbon dioxide associated with its production of escaping into the atmosphere. The plant will also produce 1 million tons of ammonia every year, also labeled as low-carbon.
Japanese refining company Idemitsu Kosan was also unveiled as a partner in the joint venture and as an offtaker. Together with Mitsubishi the two companies are exploring the feasability of converting one of its liquefied petroleum gas terminals in Western Japan into an ammonia one.
In November 2022 Exxon and Mitsubishi announced they will work together on developing carbon capture offerings to industrial customers and the Baytown project is seen as a large-scale demonstration that could showcase the efficiency levels of point source capture for hydrogen and ammonia production.
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