Eastman Chemical Co. (Kingsport, Tenn.) and Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, a leading pioneer in the liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) industry, are partnering to make the storage and transportation of sustainable hydrogen more secure, easier and more affordable for the fast-growing clean energy market.
“We are excited to begin this partnership, which will continue to strengthen as we explore scale-up of our ability to supply global liquid organic hydrogen carrier demand,” said JP Kuijpers, Eastman’s managing director for the EMEA region.
“Eastman’s specialty fluids business is uniquely positioned to partner with Hydrogenious, given our extensive experience in fluid supply for solar renewable energy projects and global manufacturing, logistics and technical service expertise in industrial fluids,” added Kuijpers.
Eastman is poised to meet the increasing needs of the hydrogen transport industry through production of an LOHC specialty product — a member of the Marlotherm family — which is a carrier medium that chemically binds the hydrogen molecules to ensure safe and easy logistics and storage.
The product is produced at Eastman’s site in Marl, Germany, and can be reused even after several hundred cycles. Eastman can also reprocess the fluid to enable significant greenhouse gas emission reductions and contribute to a truly circular economy. In 2020, Eastman was named one of the world’s most sustainably managed companies by The Wall Street Journal.
“Partnering with a company with the reach and capacity of Eastman is a major step in the implementation of green hydrogen stored in LOHC as energy carrier of the future,” said Dr. Daniel Teichmann, CEO and founder of Hydrogenious LOHC. “The increased availability of Eastman’s benzyl toluene carrier fluid as well as technological improvements will enable large-scale hydrogen infrastructure projects and will create the groundwork now for the needs of a future global hydrogen economy.
“A key issue in our collaboration is focus on optimizing the carrier medium, so you can always end up in the reprocessing process.”