A contract for pre-front end engineering and design (pre-FEED) work on a demonstration size project to manufacture carbon neutral e-methane from green hydrogen in Australia has been signed by Santos Energy Solutions, a division of Australia’s Santos and Osaka Gas.
Pre-FEED will be started by Santos and Osaka Gas Australia, a division of Osaka Gas, and will include infrastructure studies for carbon capture and renewable energy, site selection for green hydrogen and e-methane plants, process optimization for e-methane production, and a more thorough analysis of costs, schedules, feasibility, and risks.
Santos stated that it is looking at the possibility of producing, liquefying, and exporting e-methane to Japan using its current infrastructure.
Santos and Osaka Gas propose to generate e-methane at a plant with a planned capacity of 10 TJ/day and export roughly 60,000 metric tons/year by 2030. They aim for FEED entrance in 2024 and to be final investment decision ready in 2026.
In Moomba, South Australia, Santos Energy Solutions is developing a carbon capture and storage facility that is anticipated to store up to 1.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, with the first injection scheduled for 2024. In order to develop the Moomba CCS project and supply feedstock for e-methane production at Moomba, it also intends to test direct air capture, a method for removing CO2 from the atmosphere.
