RWE’s Grangemouth Green Hydrogen initiative in Scotland, unveiled at last week’s All Energy Conference and Exhibition in Glasgow, is scheduled to be operational by 2029. It will have an initial capacity up to 200 MWe, potentially producing 3.6 t/y of hydrogen, with plans to increase this to 600 MWe at a later date.  

The first hydrogen produced will be supplied to nearby chemical manufacturer Ineos Grangemouth, helping the company to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2045.

According to Ineos, the RWE hydrogen initiative will augment its own project to develop a low-carbon blue hydrogen production unit at Grangemouth, with the CO₂ exported to geological storage deep below the North Sea (100 km of the north-east coast of Aberdeenshire) via the Acorn transport and storage system.  

The next step will be progressing towards a planning application which will include local consultation on the project.

Commenting on the announcement, the Scottish government’s Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy Màiri McAllan said: ‘[Scotland’s] Hydrogen Action Plan sets out our ambition of at least 5 GW installed renewable and low-carbon hydrogen production capacity by 2030 and 25 GW by 2045.’

Meanwhile, in less positive news, earlier this month the UK government announced that it was shelving plans to trial hydrogen heating at a town-level scale, after smaller village-sized trials in Whitby, and more recently Redcar, were cancelled due to local opposition. Noting in a statement that ‘low-carbon hydrogen may have a role to play in heat decarbonisation, alongside heat pumps and heat networks, but in slower time in some locations’, the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) stated that a town trial will now be delayed until strategic decisions on the role of hydrogen in decarbonising heat are made in 2026.

The announcement was a blow to gas distribution networks, which have been campaigning to use the existing gas infrastructure for transporting hydrogen to decarbonise domestic heating.  

European news

Looking overseas, North American green fuels developer EverWind Fuels reports that green hydrogen from its projects in Atlantic Canada will help underpin development of the Port of Rotterdam as an international hub for hydrogen production, import, use and transport to other countries in north-west Europe. The port of Rotterdam is Europe’s largest seaport and is a key distribution channel to Germany’s industrial heartland, the Ruhr area. The port is expected to be importing some 18mn tonnes of hydrogen by 2050.  

EverWinds also produces green ammonia, and several developments are currently underway in Rotterdam to receive green ammonia by 2026. Ammonia is seen as one of the most promising at-scale hydrogen carriers and is a potential clean fuel for a wide range of applications, including transportation, power generation and hard-to-abate industries, including steel, cement and fertiliser production.

Meanwhile, in Spain, Cepsa has selected Thyssenkrupp Nucera as the preferred supplier of a 300 MW electrolyser, and Siemens Energy for 100 MW of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers, for green hydrogen production at its La Rábida Energy Park in Palos de la Frontera, Huelva.

Cepsa is developing the green hydrogen production in Huelva as part of its wider Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley plans for 2 GW of capacity by 2030 (1 GW in Huelva and 1 GW in Cádiz), producing up to 300,000 t/y of green hydrogen at what is claimed to be one of the largest projects of its kind in Europe.

Further afield

UAE’s ADNOC reports that it has delivered what it claims is the world’s first certified bulk commercial shipment of low-carbon ammonia enabled by carbon capture and storage (CCS) to Mitsui & Company for use in power generation in Japan. The low-carbon certification process, from production to delivery, has been conducted by certification agency TÜV SÜD.

The shipment, produced by Fertiglobe, builds on previous demonstration cargos delivered by ADNOC to customers in Asia and Germany.

The cargo, sourced from Fertil, Fertiglobe’s 100%-owned facility located in the Ruwais Industrial City, Abu Dhabi, will see the CO₂ captured and permanently stored in the world’s first fully sequestered CO₂ injection well in a carbonate saline aquifer.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that hydrogen will need to account for around 10% of global energy consumption for the world to reach net zero by 2050. ADNOC aims to capture 5% of the global low-carbon hydrogen market by 2030.

This year, ADNOC embarked on the design of a facility in Abu Dhabi that will produce up to 360,000 t/y of hydrogen and capture up to 3mn tonnes of CO₂. In addition, together with its partners TA’ZIZ, Fertiglobe, GS Energy Corporation and Mitsui, it is developing a 1mn t/y low-carbon ammonia facility at the TA’ZIZ Industrial Chemicals Zone.