Chemical Engineering January 2019 - 15

MAN Energy Solutions
gen, Germany; www.siemens.com).
Speaking at Dechema's PraxisForum
" Electrolysis in Industry " (22-23 November;
Dechema Haus, Frankfurt),
Baldauf presented the advances
being made by Siemens to develop
new, industrial-scale electrolyzers in
order to decarbonize the production
of H2 by taking advantage of the falling
prices and increasing availability
of renewable electricity - especially
that produced from wind and solar
energy. Siemens has focused on proton-exchange
membrane (PEM) electrolysis
- in principle, a fuel cell operating
in reverse - for H2 production.
Compared to acid or alkaline electrolysis,
PEM offers good dynamic operation,
which is especially important
for
fluctuating
electricity,
explained
Baldauf, as well as producing higher
purity (>99.9%) H2, and no chemicals
are added. " We believe electrolysis is
the chief technology for sector coupling, "
said Baldauf, referring to the
coupling of the power, process and
transportation sectors.
Siemens first introduced its PEM
technology in 2011, with the Silyzer
100, followed by the Silyzer 200 in
2015 - a 1.25-MW system with a
65% efficiency. Since 2015, three Silyzer
200 PEM systems have been
operating at the Energiepark Mainz,
converting wind energy into H2,
which is then stored and fed into
the local gas grid or delivered to surrounding
industry and H2-filling stations
via tank trailers. This facility,
a joint project of Stadtwerke Mainz
AG, the Linde Group and Siemens,
was, at the time, the world's largest
PEM electrolyzer facility.
In 2016, the Silyzer 200 was used
in Germany's first PTG plant at Windgas
Haßfurt GmbH & Co. KG, which
is owned by partners Greenpeace
Energy eG and Städttische Betrieb
Haßfurt GmbH. The 1.25-MW unit is
used to stabilize the total power network
by drawing excess electricity
from wind and solar plants.
Last year, Siemens launched the
Silyzer 300, consisting of up to 24
PEM modules for a total capacity
of 20 MW, and an efficiency of
75% (without H2 compression).
The first commercial application
of the Silyzer 300 - a 6-MW pilot
unit with only 12 modules - was
Defossilized marine
engine & HFOsubstitution
by LNG
CH4/LNG
Electrolysis
hydrogen
Power supply
H2
FIGURE 2. MAN
Energy Solutions envisions
having large
(50 MW), complete
power-to-gas plants
in every major harbor
to produce substitute
natural gas as fuel for
ships and vehicles
CO2
Synthesis of
methanol
Methanol OME
OME
Demonstration
OME-truck
Demonstrator
OME-car
CH4/natural gas
Reconversion
to electricity
Liquefaction of CH4/
natural gas > LNG
Battery-backed shoreside
electrcity
commissioned at the end of 2018
in Linz, Austria, where it is featured
in the E.U.-funded (€18-million) flagship
project H2Future. The plant is
scheduled to be fully operational
this spring, producing 1,200 m3/h
of H2 that will be used for steelmaking
processes at voestalpine
AG (Linz, Austria; www.voestalpine.
com), using hydroelectric power
supplied by Verbund - Austria's
largest electricity company, which
operates 128 hydropower plants.
Also scaling up to industrial scale is
thyssenkrupp AG (Essen, Germany;
wwww.thyssenkrupp.com),
which
commercially launched its advanced
water electrolysis technology last year
(Chem. Eng., August 2018, p. 6). To
make deployment of large H2 projects
as easy as possible, the thyssenkrupp
technology is available in prefabricated,
skid-mounted standard
modules (5, 10 and 20 MW each).
The pre-mounted skid modules allow
easy transport and quick installation
with minimum effort. By simply adding
them up, desired project sizes can
easily be realized, up into the range
of several hundred megawatts, explained
Gergor Polcyn, head of Product
Management & Technology Dept,
Energy Storge & Hydrogen at thyssenkrupp
Uhde Chlorine Engineers
GmbH (Dortmund, Germany). More
than 200,000 elements have already
been manufactured, said Polcyn at
the Dechema forum. The first demonstration
unit - a 2-MW electrolyzer
producing 440 Nm3/h H2 with 99.95%
purity, started up last summer in Duisburg,
Germany as part of the Carbon2Chem
project (www.thyssenkrupp.
com/en/carbon2chem). That project
CHEMICAL ENGINEERING WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
JANUARY 2019
aims to develop technology for converting
the emissions from steel mills
- composed of about 44% N2, 23%
CO2, 21% CO 10% H2 and 2% CH4
- to make chemicals, such as ammonia
and methanol.
Power-to-gas: methane
Although there is a large market for
H2, its use as a fuel is still limited, due
to a lack of infrastructure, says Marc
Grünewald, head of Business Development
and New Energies, Power
Unit, MAN Energy Solutions SE (MAN
ES; Augsburg, Germany; www.
man-es.com).
Therefore, MAN ES
aims to build large-scale PTG plants
as a way to utilize surplus electricity
to make methane, or synthetic natural
gas (SNG). SNG has the advantage
over H2 in that it can be directly injected
into existing infrastructure, where it can
be pipelined for use for power generation,
heating in households and as a
transportation fuel, including for ships
(Figure 2). " This is not simply energy
storage, but rather the production of
green fuels, " Grünewald says. About
50% of energy used for industry today
is consumed by transportation vessels
- " vessels do not want batteries, but
green fuels, " he says. To reduce CO2
emissions and achieve more stringent
emission targets, ships can shift from
oil or diesel fuel to liquefied natural gas
(LNG) or SNG, Grünewald explains.
" We envision having a 50-MW powerto-gas
plant in all the major harbors to
supply ships. "
Since 2012, MAN ES has been operating
a pilot methanation plant at an
Audi site in Werlte, Germany for the
production of SNG directly from CO2
and H2. The process takes place in a
15
http://www.siemens.com http://www.voestalpine http://wwww.thyssenkrupp.com http://www.man-es.com http://www.thyssenkrupp http://WWW.CHEMENGONLINE.COM
Chemical Engineering January 2019

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