In this exclusive interview, ExxonMobil’s Mark Klewpatinond and Zeeco’s Eric Pratchard discuss the company’s recent strategic alliance surrounding the development and commercialization of an advanced new class of hydrogen-fired burners
As many companies in the chemical process industries (CPI) are embarking on new sustainability journeys, hydrogen comes up again and again as a potential pathway to decarbonization. A new collaboration between ExxonMobil Corp. (Houston) and Zeeco, Inc. (Broken Arrow, Okla.) aims to make 100% hydrogen-ready burners a commercial reality. Zeeco’s new Free Jet Gen 3 burner features a next-generation design that enables ultra-low emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx) while extending fuel-firing capabilities to 100% hydrogen — significantly lowering CO2 emissions compared to burning incumbent fuel sources, such as natural gas, for process heating in furnaces and boilers. In a unique partnership, Zeeco is collaborating with ExxonMobil to deploy the new burners at ExxonMobil’s Baytown Complex, a world-scale integrated petrochemicals and petroleum refining site in Texas. “In collaboration with ExxonMobil, we identified a need for a process refining burner that would allow the site to switch to a cleaner hydrogen fuel and provide or produce either similar or improved emissions results compared to what they would typically have had with a more traditional refinery fuel-gas blend,” says Eric Pratchard, director of burner technologies at Zeeco.
This ambition aligns with Baytown’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by up to 30%. “This burner technology is critical for our site to achieve emissions-reduction goals. If we’re going to switch from an incumbent fuel like natural gas to hydrogen, we need a robust burner we can place into our boilers and furnaces to ensure that we can combust hydrogen whilst remaining within our permit limits with regards to NOx,” says Mark Klewpatinond, hydrogen global business manager at ExxonMobil. NOx reduction has been a front-of-mind concern in the design and deployment of any type of hydrogen-burning equipment. “The real challenge in the hydrogen space is not that you can’t burn hydrogen today. It’s that a lot of the technology does not necessarily allow you to burn hydrogen while managing your NOx levels. That’s where Zeeco comes in with the development of next-generation ultra-low-NOx burners that really enable us to maintain our license to operate within the permissible NOx limits,” he adds.