Massena Green Hydrogen Facility

About the Project

Air Products is proposing development of the Massena Green Hydrogen Facility to harvest up to 35 metric tons per day (MTPD) of green hydrogen utilizing renewable power to be supplied by the New York Power Authority (NYPA). The hydrogen facility involves production of liquid hydrogen by electrolysis. Electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction (in this case to harvest hydrogen). The required electrical supply will be provided from the NYPA Hydro Preservation Power Program and renewable market power through NYPA’s 345 kV line adjacent to the project site. The project will be using Quantity 4 electrolyzers rated at 20 megawatts (MW) each, to harvest renewable hydrogen. The hydrogen produced in the electrolyzers after being liquified will be distributed to customers for their use as a fuel source mainly for the mobility sector for trucks and buses.

The facility will purchase water from the Village of Massena, which draws its water from the St. Lawrence River. The incoming water (raw water) will be treated via a clarification system and forwarded to a raw water storage tank. Water from the raw water tank is further purified by the demineralized water plant and then fed to the electrolyzers. The products from the electrolysis process are wet hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen product is purified in a purification system to remove the low quantities of oxygen from the hydrogen stream. The oxygen produced from the electrolyzer is vented.

This process is exothermic where the oxygen reacts with hydrogen to form water. The hot stream is cooled and passes through a knock-out drum to remove the water droplets. The hydrogen stream is then fed through a temperature swing adsorption (TSA) drier unit to remove all remaining water. The dry hydrogen product is sent to the hydrogen liquefaction plant.

The liquefaction plant feeds the trailer loading units and the liquified storage tanks. The liquid hydrogen that is not loaded directly into trucks is stored in four bullet tanks. The loading station can accommodate 4 trailers at any one time, once loaded the trailers are either stored on site or sent directly to deliver the product to customers.