Convert Well
Repurposing Gas Fields into Low-carbon Hydrogen Producers
Introducing a transformative decarbonisation process for gas fields
Convert Well demonstrates to Oil & Gas Companies the value that can be created when their producing gas fields are converted into low-carbon hydrogen producers.
We use physics-based software to screen for the suitability and economics of producing (blue) hydrogen at gas processing sites. The produced CO2 is injected deep in the producing gas reservoir to maintain gas, and hence hydrogen production.
Along with trusted industry partners, we help to progress projects to convert from 100% natural gas to 100% hydrogen production.
As a result, the Oil & Gas Company sells low-carbon hydrogen through the repurposed gas pipeline infrastructure (under fixed contract) to existing industrial customers of hydrogen, such as methanol and ammonia producers and refineries. And in future, to steel companies.
Solving a specific need for low-carbon hydrogen
Around 99% of the 100 million tonnes per year of hydrogen manufactured today is for use as a feedstock for base chemicals and for the oil refining industry.
It is made almost exclusively from hydrocarbons: Grey Hydrogen if manufactured from natural gas (two thirds of the volumes) or Brown Hydrogen (one third) if from coal.
Using hydrogen for fuel, whilst currently around 1% of hydrogen use, is an interesting growth area, but we are concentrating on the 99%.
Convert Well’s Upstream Hydrogen (patent pending) is a reliable, 24/7 low-carbon hydrogen to replace current volumes of grey hydrogen for industrial use. Upstream Hydrogen requires minimal hydrogen storage and minimal transportation of the CO2 produced as a by-product.
It also improves reservoir and surface efficiencies.
Reducing the cost/kg of low-carbon hydrogen production
Producing low-carbon hydrogen upstream brings down the cost/kg in multiple ways:
Short and medium term gas production rates are higher due to CO2 helping maintain the pressure of the gas reservoir
Improving long term recovery from the gas reservoir/field can delay the cost of decommissioning.
The need, the cost and the planning uncertainties of a long distance onshore CO2 pipeline to a remote permanent storage site are removed. CO2 is safely stored deep underground on site, more than a km deep, in what is an already proven gas storage site.
Using Hydrogen line pack minimises the need for costly Hydrogen storage.
A higher value product is being produced than that previously produced by the O&G Company since low-carbon Hydrogen is a more valuable product than Natural Gas.
And whilst the future may be Green, Blue Hydrogen is sometimes quoted around half the cost of Green Hydrogen.
A sustainable alternative
Did you know that manufacturing 100 million tonnes a year of hydrogen for industrial use generates close to 1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year? That’s the same as global aviation!
Upstream Hydrogen is a genuinely low-carbon product that has a number of sustainability benefits:
Fixing the CO2 problem at source is cheaper for society that each industrial site having to fix the problem. The CO2 from hydrogen manufacture is injected within a couple of minutes back into the base of the same producing gas field.
A complaint about ‘normal’ Blue Hydrogen (from gas with CCS) is, “What about the upstream emissions?” Producing Upstream Hydrogen addresses upstream methane and emissions.
Establishing a reliable and bankable supply of genuinely low-carbon hydrogen will be essential to progress decarbonisation of the hard-to-abate sectors of methanol and ammonia production, oil refining and increasingly, steel prodcution.