Wind-to-hydrogen technology
Hydrogen is being hailed as, if not a tableware pellet, but also at least a pivotal element in decarbonizing the world’s energy sources. And no wonder — when burned, hydrogen produces zero hothouse gas emigrations. still, the transition to renewable hydrogen frugality must first overcome an on-insignificant list of challenges.
So-called green hydrogen, produced through electrolysis of water using renewable energy, presently accounts for only about 1 of global products. It’s also about three times as precious as its slate counterpart, produced from reactionary energy sources.
One of the major pieces of the mystification of spanning green hydrogen is access to vast quantities of renewable energy and water. Enter completely coastal wind-to-hydrogen, where high-capacity factor floating wind turbines are connected to electrolyzers that use seawater.
“ What’s complex and expensive in planting a coastal( wind ranch) point is converting the energy at the ocean and bringing it in a string to shore, ” Stéphane Le Berre, coastal design director at renewable hydrogen patron Lhyfe tells TNW, adding that for the rearmost large- scale systems, this part alone quantities to billions of euros.
“ One result for coastal wind demesne inventors to suppress the need for precious electric substations and lines is to replace them with a hydrogen product factory, which converts the electricity to hydrogen, ”
Le Berre states.
The hydrogen can also be transported through a channel — formerly in the plenitude of force in the North Sea, courtesy of the oil painting and gas assiduity.
Aiming for green( hydrogen) unicorn status
innovated with six people in 2017 by Matthieu Guesné, moment Nantes- grounded Lhyfe employs 200 people and is present in 16 countries. It has attracted around 80mn in backing and says its charge is to come as a “ green unicorn. ” Rather than measuring its status in valuation, it hopes to reach a billion tonnes of avoided CO2 emigrations. Lhyfe’s onshore point in Bouin, running since H2 2021, presently produces 300 kg of green hydrogen per day. One kilogram of hydrogen is the energy fellow of one gallon(3.78 liters) of petrol, which produces a little over 9 kg of CO2 when burned.
That Lhyfe came to a hydrogen patron at each is nearly a commodity of a side effect. It came about incompletely motivated by addressing another aspect of global warming — the oxygen reduction of the abysses.
When producing one kilogram of hydrogen through electrolysis, you also release eight kilograms of oxygen as a by-product. Lhyfe has the intention of pumping it back into the ocean, to potentially help restore the balance of marine ecosystems disintegrated by climate change.
“ When we started Lhyfe, we wanted to make coastal hydrogen so that we’d have profitable viability to bring oxygen to the ocean, ”
Le Berre says.
World’s first coastal wind-to-hydrogen airman
In September last time, Lhyfe inaugurated the world’s first coastal renewable hydrogen product Airman Point. In June, the company blazoned that the 1MW demonstrator design, called Sealhyfe, had produced its first kilograms of green hydrogen. ( Chinese state-possessed Donfang Electric may have beaten Lhyfe to the factual product by a couple of weeks.)
Sealhyfe is located roughly 20 km off the seacoast of Le Croisic, France. Momentarily it produces half a tonne of hydrogen per day. It’s plugged into the SEM- REV power hub — the first European floating wind ranch and point for multi-technology coastal testing.
SEM- REV has an aquatic mecca, which is like a giant block with four sockets. One of them is used to connect the SEM- REV wind turbine and another is the string connecting the point to the grid onshore. This leaves two largely coveted sockets available for demonstration systems, one of which now allows the Sealhyfe platform to draw electricity directly from the wind turbine.
The Sealhyfe electrolyzer sits on a floating platform, is finagled to stabilize the product unit at the ocean, and uses desalinated water for the electrolysis. One kilogram of green hydrogen requires nine liters of water, and with drinkable water failure projected to increase significantly over the coming decades, this is one of the main arguments for locating product spots by or on the ocean.
Lhyfe has until May coming time before it needs to dissociate from the SEM– REV Mecca. Until also, hopes to prove not only that the technology works, but that it can repel the harsh conditions of the Atlantic Ocean in downtime.
Hydrogen generation wind power:
Assignments from Sealhyfe will inform unborn coastal systems. This includes the unprecedentedly large-scale 10MW Stopgap, which Lhyfe is coordinating with another eight mates. The European Clean Hydrogen Partnership program has named the design for a 20mn entitlement.
Stopgap will produce up to four tonnes of green hydrogen a day. The intention is to have it up and running outside the seacoast of Belgium in 2026. By 2030, Lhyfe means to have multiplied several 10MW systems for a total capacity of 100MW.
Across Europe, several other coastal wind-to-hydrogen product systems are beginning to take shape. One is H2Mare, run by a group of assiduity and academic mates led by Siemens Energy and Siemens Gamesa, the energy mammoth’s wind turbine division.
“ Offshore spots could make it possible for densely peopled regions like Europe and Japan to induce at least part of their hydrogen near to littoral demand centers, thereby cutting transportation costs, ” says H2Mare’s design fellow and program director for coastal hydrogen at Siemens Energy, Mathias Mueller. “ Also, wind pets are generally advanced and steadier out at the ocean, permitting constantly lesser affair. ”
Siemens has invested€ 120mn into the design, which won’t set up a full-scale coastal system, but rather a test platform on a barge on the open ocean, along with an onshore test setup of the electrolysis system. It’ll essay to prove the fiscal viability and stylish configuration for coastal wind-to-hydrogen.
Wise from falling before on batteries, Europe not sleeping on hydrogen
The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has chosen H2Mare as one of three flagship hydrogen systems awarded€ 700mn in total. As part of Germany’s plans to generate 30MW of coastal wind power in 2030, the government has set aside an area in the North Sea for green hydrogen products with a capacity of over 1GW.
still, the assiduity isn’t satisfied with the intentions. In May, a group including BP, Siemens Gamesa, RWE, and Lhyfe, inked an appeal to the German government, asking it to add a target of a fresh 10GW of coastal hydrogen product by 2035 to the public strategy and area development plan.
The Dutch government is also pushing the coastal hydrogen docket. In March this time, it designated an area located in the North of the country, near the Wadden islets, for a 500MW wind-to-hydrogen design. As a stepping gravestone, it’ll develop a lower airman design with an electrolysis capacity of between 50MW and 100MW.
“ I suppose Europe was smart enough to go on hydrogen and to support hydrogen beforehand enough. Because they learned from what happened with the batteries in China, and, of course, anything that Europe has tried to do with batteries was times behind schedule compared to China, ” “ Now, Europe has put effects in place so that we’re on time, and we can actually contend efficiently, economically, and technologically versus China. ”
Le Berre says.
With RePowerEU, the European Commission has set targets to produce 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen by 2030 and predicts that hydrogen — domestic and imported — could make up 14 of its energy blend by 2050.
To support this end, it intends to mobilise€ 372bn through the InvestEU program by 2027. For the European startups erecting electrolyzers or creating demand by developing hydrogen-powered airplanes and buses, this type of assiduity support might just propel them off the ground — and us toward a cleanser-burning future.
