Reuse of By-Product Hydrogen from Oil Refinery in Nickel Refinery

Summary

The nickel refinery process of sulfide ores needs substantial amounts of hydrogen. In order for Kwinana Nickel Refinery to meet their process requirements, the company established a long-term synergy with BP Refinery to use their by-product hydrogen as back-up. The synergy enabled the nickel refinery to keep their existing hydrogen plant operating at existing capacity, and if needed, the supplement the process requirements with hydrogen from the oil refinery. The hydrogen from the oil refinery is purified by a scrubber system of the nickel refinery.

Industry

Industry Sector	Specific Industry
petroleum sector	oil refinery
mining and minerals sector	nickel refinery

Region

Kwinana Industrial Area, Kwinana, Western Australia

Applied Technologies

• hydrogen scrubbing and purification

Triple Bottom Line Aspects (direct at operational level)

Economic	costs gas pipeline between oil refinery and nickel refinery generated company income
Environmental	avoided impacts of alternative hydrogen production at nickel refinery
Social	none

Additional Comments

None.

References

• van Beers, D, Bossilkov, A and van Berkel, R (2005) “Capturing Regional Synergies in the Kwinana Industrial Area – 2005 Status Report”, CSRP Report (for Project 3B1), August 2005
• van Berkel, R (2005) "Regional Resource Synergies for Sustainable Development in Heavy Industrial Areas: an Overview of Opportunities and Experiences" (tentative title), Report for Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage Project (LP0349203), forthcoming

Last Update

23 November 2005