Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) on Friday launched Europe’s biggest hydrogen electrolysis plant of 10 megawatts (MW) called Refhyne at the Wesseling site of its Rheinland refinery after two years of construction, expanding further into alternative energies.
The plant will produce green fuels within a European Union-funded consortium which is already setting sights on a facility of 100 MW at the site near Cologne to scale up its commercial operations.
Hydrogen is considered “green” when it is produced from renewable power from wind or solar through electrolysis whereas “grey” hydrogen from fossil fuels is a feedstock in many standard industry processes today.
Hydrogen has a high energy content by mass, but conversion losses from electrolysis and high costs involved in readying it for delivery pose challenges.
Under the EU Green Deal’s climate targets, green quality hydrogen is expected to play a role in energy, but also in mobility, heat provision, and hard-to-decarbonise industries such as steel or cement.
Source: Reuters