Time: 2025-12-09 15:30 Click:
On December 3, 2025, RefineTek and a world-leading LNG producer jointly launched their LNG BOG re-liquefaction and integrated helium–hydrogen recovery project at RefineTek (Ningbo).
This marks a milestone in the strategic cooperation between both parties and represents a key step forward for China’s advanced materials technology entering global industrial arenas.
The project involves an investment of over USD 40 million, and will establish the first large-scale alloy-based industrial helium and hydrogen extraction unit outside of P. R. China.
This is not only a collaboration, but also a redefinition of the global helium development model.
In natural gas streams, helium concentrations are extremely low and extraction is costly.
However, in the boil-off gas (BOG) generated during LNG storage and vaporization, helium concentration is enriched by 10~50 times, making BOG-based helium recovery the most economical and strategically valuable pathway.
RefineTek has developed an innovative solution built from materials to equipment, and from equipment to system-level integration--delivering:
✔ Lower energy consumption
✔ Shorter process flow
✔ Intrinsic operational safety
✔ Simultaneous recovery of helium and hydrogen
At the core is RefineTek’s proprietary hydrogen-absorbing alloy, combined with membrane separation and pressure swing adsorption (PSA).
This enables precise helium capture and parallel hydrogen utilization--extracting high-purity helium from tail gas while reliquefying methane back into LNG--delivering both technological superiority and economic value.
Helium is known as “the coolant of technological civilization.”
It is embedded in:
• MRI diagnostics
• Rocket engine cooling systems
• Semiconductor manufacturing clean environments
• Quantum computing and cryogenic science
• Cutting-edge science research
…invisible yet indispensable everywhere.
During project inspections, the international client highly recognized RefineTek’s helium–hydrogen separation technology and expressed strong interest in the company’s capabilities in hydrogen production, safe hydrogen storage, and energy utilization.
Both parties are now exploring broader cooperation opportunities.
This milestone signifies that:
• China’s advanced materials and equipment capabilities are entering core global energy scenarios;
• RefineTek is turning technology into resource value;
• The Belt and Road vision is transforming from policy concept to tangible result.
