Hycamite TCD Technologies has selected Sweco to engineer its pilot plant for industrial hydrogen production. The plant will be built in Kokkola Industrial Park (KIP), Finland, which is the largest concentration of the inorganic chemical industry in Northern Europe. At the pilot plant, Hycamite will perfect its new carbon-neutral hydrogen production technology based on methane decomposition.
Hycamite produces hydrogen and clean solid carbon by decomposing methane molecules from natural gas and biogas. No greenhouse gas emissions are generated during the manufacturing process or from the combustion of the resulting hydrogen into electricity and heat. The only end product is water. This process is emission-free, as carbon separates from the gas as a solid product.
Sweco previously engineered a small test facility for Hycamite for hydrogen production. Construction work on the new pilot plant is scheduled to begin next year. Sweco will be responsible for the plant’s engineering until the plant is commissioned. Due to its size, the pilot plant is a unique engineering project. The engineers are focusing on accurate modelling and the later expandability as production increases.
‘The hydrogen economy is the cornerstone of future energy production – it doesn’t end there and offers society as a whole the opportunity to switch to clean energy. We have worked well and closely with Hycamite, offering a team of experts tailored to the customer’s needs with a local presence in Kokkola. We want to be close to our customers and share the same project routine with their common insights,’ said Sini Larsen, Department Manager, Chemical & Mining at Sweco Finland
‘We have been very pleased with Sweco’s diverse expertise and professionalism, and that is why Sweco was also a natural choice as a pilot plant designer,’ says Laura Rahikka, Hycamite’s founder and CEO.
Hycamite aims to launch large-scale hydrogen production with its new technology over the next couple of years. The hydrogen produced by Hycamite can be used, among other things, for emission-free energy production and various industrial processes. Production will allow companies to switch to hydrogen in the next few years, even though wind-generated hydrogen will not be sufficient to meet the growing demand for a long time to come.
The desire to curb the greenhouse effect is now rapidly increasing the demand for hydrogen. Hydrogen combustion does not generate greenhouse gas emissions but only pure water vapor. Hydrogen can be used both as an energy source to balance fluctuations in the amount of electricity produced by wind power and as a raw material for the chemical industry. For example, it can also produce synthetic fuels to replace jet fuel made from oil, diesel, and petrol.
More information:
Laura Rahikka, President and CEO, Hycamite TCD Technologies Oy, tel. +358 40 723 6101, laura.rahikka(at)hycamite.com
Sini Larsen, Sini Larsen, Department Manager, Chemical & Mining, Sweco, tel. +358 40 830 0778, sini.larsen(at)sweco.fi
Tim Karike, PR and Media Relations, Sweco, tel. +358 44 507 5562, tim.karike(at)sweco.fi
