Shell has taken the final investment decision to build what it says will be Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational in 2025. Named Holland Hydrogen I, the 200MW electrolyser will be constructed on the Tweede Maasvlakte in the port of Rotterdam and will produce up to 60,000 kg of renewable hydrogen per day.
The renewable power for the electrolyser will come from the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (noord), which is partly owned by Shell.
The renewable hydrogen produced will supply the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, by way of a new hydrogen pipeline through the Port of Rotterdam, where it will replace some of the grey hydrogen usage in the refinery. Shell said this would partially decarbonise the facility’s production of energy products like petrol and diesel and jet fuel.
“Shell’s ambition is to help build a global hydrogen economy by developing opportunities in the production, storage, transport, and delivery of hydrogen to end customers,” the company said in a release on Wednesday. Shell owns and operates around 10% of the global capacity of installed hydrogen electrolysers, including a 20 MW electrolyser in China and a 10 MW proton exchange membrane electrolyser in Germany. They can produce, respectively, 3,000 tonnes and 1,300 tonnes of hydrogen a year.
