H2Tech - Q1 2021 - 14

REGIONAL REPORT: EUROPE
overall clean energy and H2 strategies.
Germany's National Hydrogen Strategy
leaves room for fossil-based H2 with carbon capture as a bridge to longer-term use
of green H2, noting, " The Federal Government believes that both a global and
European hydrogen market will emerge in
the coming 10 years and that carbon-free
(for example, blue or turquoise) hydrogen
will be traded on this market. " 4 Germany
has committed €7 B ($8 B) of funding to
develop its early-stage H2 industry.
Although it no longer abides by EU
policy, the UK government's climate
change advisory body has expressed support for blue H2 as a means of quickly
scaling up the H2 economy in tandem
with green H2 projects. Studies suggest
that H2 generated from renewable energy and natural gas could provide more
than 45% of UK total energy demand by
2050-without the financial crutch of
direct subsidies, but with coordinated
policy support across the H2 supply chain.
UK project developments. A few blue
H2 projects are already in progress in the
UK. Equinor is leading a 600-MW ATR
blue H2 project at Saltend Chemicals Park
in the Humber region called H2H Saltend,
with FID expected in 2023. The project
would reduce emissions from the site by
nearly 900,000 metric tpy of CO2. H2H
Saltend will also form part of the Zero Carbon Humber project, a collaboration with
National Grid and Drax Power to export
carbon-neutral power and H2 to industrial

centers in the east of England by 2040.
Meanwhile, Essar Oil UK is working
with Progressive Energy Ltd. to install a
blue H2 project at its 204,000-bpd Stanlow refinery in northwest England. The
initial phase will produce 3 TWh/yr of
blue H2 via SMR by 2025, with a later
expansion to 9 TWh/yr. Progressive Energy has been working with several UK
companies to switch industrial operations
to low-carbon H2 through existing gas
networks. The Essar Oil project is part of
that wider initiative, called HyNet, which
received £7.48 MM in funding from the
UK government in 2020.
Industrial integration of green H2 .
SMR produces approximately 10 metric t of CO2 for each metric t of H2 produced. Half of these emissions are linked
to fossil feedstock use. A medium-size
conversion refinery consumes around 50
kilotons/yr of H2 , and the SMR process
accounts for approximately 30% of the
plant's H2 production.5
Worldwide, dedicated H2 production
emits 830 MMt of CO2 , which accounts
for more than 2% of fossil CO2 emissions
at present.2 On-purpose H2 production
accounts for about 15% of emissions associated with the European refining industry as of 2018, including CO2 coming
from SMR and fuel use. To completely
replace the 50 kilotons/yr of H2 used in
these refining processes would require an
installed electrolyzer capacity of around
Steam generation
plant and others
Refinery
processes

Steam
supply grid

MULTIPLHY, 2.6 MWel, AC

H2
2.4 MWel, AC
high-temperature
electrolyzer
unit (HTE)
H2 grid,
30 bar

Maximum 3.5 MWel, AC
H2
0.2 MWel, AC
H2 processing
unit (HPU)

≥60 kg/hr

≈ 1% of H2
consumption

FIG. 2. The MULTIPLHY project's solid oxide electrolyzer will have a nominal power input
of 2.6 MW and an H2 production capacity of 60 kg/hr, making it 20% more efficient than
a low-temperature electrolyzer. Image source: MULTIPLHY Project EU.

14 Q1 2021 | H2-Tech.com

340 MW with an average energy consumption of 2.5 TWh/yr-2.75TWh/yr.5
Electrolyzer utilization of just 40%-45%
can achieve a significant reduction in refinery H2 production cost.
Several collaborative decarbonization
projects are taking place between energy
majors and power producers to integrate
green H2 production into fuel production
by partially replacing gray H2 use, thereby offsetting CO2 emissions. A review of
these projects and their significance for
the development of Europe's H2 sector is
detailed in the following sections.
REFHYNE at Rheinland. The
€16-MM REFHYNE project at Shell's
160,000-bpd Rheinland oil refinery in
Wesseling, Germany is led by a consortium of Shell, ITM Power, SINTEF,
thinkstep AG and Element Energy, and
funded by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen
Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). The project is building a large proton exchange
membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, a 10MW plant from ITM Power, to produce
1,300 metric tpy of H2 for use at the refinery. The project will run for 5 yr through
December 2022.
MULTIPLHY
at
Rotterdam.
The MULTIPLHY project at Neste's
800,000-metric-tpy biodiesel refinery
in Rotterdam, the Netherlands is the
world's first multi-MW-scale, high-temperature, solid oxide electrolyzer (SOE)
project for efficient H2 production in an
industrial biofuel refining process. The
project, which is led by a consortium that
includes project engineer and stakeholder Engie, aims to produce 960 t of green
H2 by the end of 2024, thereby avoiding
the emission of 8,000 t of GHG emissions. The 2.4-MW SOE, provided by
Sunfire, will have a nominal power input
of 2.6 MW and an H2 production capacity of 60 kg/hr, making it at least 20%
more efficient than a conventional, lowtemperature electrolyzer (FIG. 2).
Lingen Green Hydrogen. The Lingen
Green Hydrogen project at BP's 100,000bpd oil refinery in Lingen, Germany is a
collaboration with windpower developer
Ørsted, slated for startup in 2024. Windpower from Ørsted's North Sea wind farm
is planned to generate the power for 9,000
tpy of H2 production from a 50-MW electrolyzer, which would replace 20% of the
natural gas-based H2 used at the refinery
and avoid 80,000 metric tpy of CO2equivalent emissions.

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