ÖMV has awarded Technip a contract for the lump sum turnkey supply of a hydrogen production unit for the Schwechat Refinery, near Vienna. The Centre of Technip in The Hague, The Netherlands, completed the Basic Design Study for this project, which is the first of a series of projects intended to upgrade the Schwechat Refinery to meet the future automotive fuel specifications. The hydrogen production unit, with a capacity of 30.000 Nm³/h of high purity hydrogen, combines conventional steam/hydrocarbon reforming and high temperature shift conversion, with high recovery pressure swing adsorption and natural gas feed saturation. Construction of the unit is scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2002 and the unit is scheduled to be ready for industrial production in April 2003. This project represents an investment valued at EUR 35 million for ÖMV.
