H₂ as a feedstock
Applications in industry

Versatile use of hydrogen in industry

Hydrogen has been used in industry in a variety of ways since the early 20th century. The gas has unique characteristics:

Due to its high affinity for oxygen, hydrogen protects surfaces from oxidation. This is why hydrogen is used in glass tanks, for example, where oxygen would make the surfaces milky. In the heat treatment of metals (e.g. annealing, soldering), hydrogen is used as corrosion protection and to adjust equilibrium reactions. In semiconductor production, high-purity hydrogen is used as a carrier gas for the production of monocrystalline silicon layers.

Due to its high affinity for sulphur, hydrogen is used in the petrochemical industry to desulphurize fuels, for example when converting long-chain hydrocarbons into short-chain hydrocarbons (“hydrocracking”). It is also used in chemical hydrogenation in the specialty and food industries (e.g. to harden vegetable oils and produce margarine).

Hydrogen is used to synthesize artificial molecules, for example ammonia (NH₃), methane (CH₄), methanol (CH₃OH) or various other raw materials and fuels. Plastics can also be produced with hydrogen. Here, hydrogen is used as an energy carrier and as a building block for organic molecules.

During combustion, hydrogen releases chemical energy in the form of heat without producing climate-damaging carbon dioxide. This makes it an interesting fuel for sustainable industrial applications that cannot be heated electrically, or only to a limited extent: primarily in the basic materials industry (cement, steel) and the processing industry (glass, metal), but also in the food sector. In climate friendly steel production, it plays a dual role as an energy source and as a reducing agent. The so-called “direct reduction of iron ore (DRI)” is used to produce climate-friendly steel.

Success stories of our hydrogen industry solutions

Emergency supply for a refinery

In refineries, nothing works without hydrogen - not even during a shutdown. Most refineries therefore have various sources of hydrogen: In addition to using by-product hydrogen from various processes, dedicated H2 is also produced via steam reforming of natural gas and other light hydrocarbons. When a steam reformer is overhauled or technical problems occur, hydrogen must be supplied to maintain operations and safety.

Tyczka has supported a refinery in southern Germany in several cases by supplying hydrogen in a trailer at short notice to bridge such outages. The response time from the first contact to the arrival of the trailer was less than 24 hours in some cases. A particular highlight: our high-capacity trailer, which requires two-thirds fewer deliveries compared to conventional 200-bar tube trailers.

Sharp razor blades 

Small but mighty: To ensure that razor blades remain sharp for a long time and do not rust, they are made of high-quality stainless steel and hardened before sharpening. As one of the leading manufacturers, our customer has been producing high-quality razor blades and shaving systems for many decades. For many years, it has relied on hydrogen from Tyczka for hardening the blades. The storage station, initially based on three maxipacks, has since been adapted several times to meet increasing gas requirements.