The Hydrogen Stream

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) and Covestro also want to partner on the supply of green hydrogen and its derivatives, including green ammonia. And the Indian government is cooperating with the IRENA to scale-up hydrogen and renewable energy projects.

Rolls-Royce is supplying its mtu hydrogen technology for the container terminal currently under construction at the Port of Duisburg in Germany. Furthermore, German energy company RWE wants to produce green hydrogen at the Pembroke Power Station site in Wales and Norway’s Scatec discussed plans for large-scale seawater desalination, hydrogen and ammonia production based on renewable power with the Egyptian government. Meanwhile, the EU has adopted a set of legislative proposals to decarbonize the EU gas market by facilitating the uptake of low carbon gases, including hydrogen.

New investments and partnerships announced this week see hydrogen projects developing across Europe, India, Asia and more. The current climate of high prices for natural gas has led one company to exclaim that green hydrogen is now competitive with its fossil fuel produced ‘grey’ counterpart, and research continues into optimizing hydrogen supply chains and smoothing its integration into the energy landscape.

This week sees hydrogen pricing hit new highs, driven by simultaneous jumps in the price of natural gas and electricity. Elsewhere, project plans include green hydrogen production at a UK brewery and Ineos building a 100 MW electrolyzer in Germany, machinery manufacturers Rolls Royce and JCB making plans for hydrogen engines, and new investment agreements signed in Belgium, Sweden and Kazakhstan.

Moreover, two big Russian corporations have unveiled plans to produce hydrogen and Portuguese utility EDP said it wants to set up a a pilot project for a green hydrogen plant in Brazil.

German project developer Svevind Energy and Kazakh Invest wants to build a 45 GW green hydrogen complex in Kazakhstan. Norwegian companies Equinor, Aker Group and Saga Pure announced separate plans to further develop their green hydrogen solution.

Belgian mechanical engineering group John Cockerill wants to set up its electrolyzer gigafactory for the production of green hydrogen in northeastern France. Galp Energia plans to install a 100-megawatt electrolyzer to power its refinery in Sines, Portugal, with green hydrogen, by 2025.

Furthermore, Swiss energy company Axpo and Swedish-Swiss electrical equipment giant ABB committed to combining their technologies and skills for several projects related to green hydrogen in Italy and Germany’s gas transmission system operators Gascade and Ontras announced a plan to set up a platform for the hydrogen industry in eastern Germany, with an initial grid to cover 475 kilometers of pipelines.

A Greek consortium is also planning to invest €8 billion in the domestic production of hydrogen and the French city of Dijon is launching a €100 million euro green hydrogen project to reduce the CO2 emissions of the territory’s public transport starting in 2023.

Big German conglomerates such as Siemens, RWE and Vattenfall keep pushing for green hydrogen development through different projects. Germany’s first offshore hydrogen pipeline is being planned by RWE itself, Shell, Gascade and Gasunie, and should be commissioned in 2035. Siemens is planning hydrogen projects in the 5 MW to 50 MW range, for industrial and mobility applications.