(Nantes, France) – French hydrogen producer Lhyfe has validated the results of its Sealhyfe project, which produces hydrogen from wind energy in the Atlantic Ocean, after a 14-month testing phase. According to the company, the data confirmed that "the original targets were met and allowed the company to take another step forward." The tests ran from September 2022 to November 2023, initially onshore and then at sea.
The “Wavegem” platform is towed into the harbor. © Lhyfe
The Sealhyfe project, equipped with a 1-megawatt electrolyzer supplied by U.S. manufacturer Plug Power Inc., was intended to demonstrate that hydrogen production was possible “on an industrial scale in an isolated environment.” In addition, it should be proven that electrolysis technology is also suitable for harsh environmental conditions. Using the operating data, production processes would now be optimized in order to scale the technologies used to locations with initially ten and then a hundred times greater performance.
Controlling electrolysis under offshore conditions
Because offshore hydrogen production is particularly relevant to providing services to the power grid, Lhyfe repeatedly tested “the versatility and responsiveness of the system in a variety of configurations.” The experiment also confirmed the system's ability to "control the variability of wind power under certain offshore conditions."
As part of the research, electrolysis was also operated at maximum production capacity. The performance achieved “was as high as on land, which confirmed the reliability of the installation,” said Lhyfe.
Once the measurement data has been evaluated, it will be incorporated into the next Lhyfe project “HOPE”. © Lhyfe
Throughout the trial, the specially designed equipment was tested under extreme conditions including platform motion management and environmental impact. Sealhyfe has withstood five major storms, including “Ciaran”, which caused waves of more than ten meters in height and winds of over 2023 kilometers per hour along the Atlantic coast in October 150.
Later analysis on land showed “that all equipment remained undamaged” and production capacity remained intact. The experiment used on-board and remote-controlled instrumentation to identify opportunities to optimize the efficiency and reliability of Lhyfe's production units for other projects as well - including security systems, electrical architecture, automation, fluid and inventory management.
Inauguration of the offshore platform for the production of renewable hydrogen in Saint Nazaire, Loire-Atlantique by Lhyfe CEO Matthieu Guesné in September 2022. © Lhyfe
The offshore electrolysis was controlled remotely from a control center using monitoring and control tools specifically developed by the company. The software and algorithms for producing green hydrogen have been validated and the number of operations required in the marine environment has been reduced. In total, Lhyfe carried out less than ten maintenance tasks and the system was active for 70 percent of the possible operating time.
Scale H2 production with HOPE
The results of the experiments are already leading to the second project. The “Hydrogen Offshore Production for Europe” (HOPE) project, a consortium with nine partners, will receive a grant of 20 million euros from the European Commission and 13 million euros from the Belgian government.
With HOPE, Lhyfe is expanding its scale. The project now aims not only to produce hydrogen offshore but also to market it. From 2026, with an installed capacity of ten megawatts, it should be able to produce up to four tons per day at sea, which will be exported via pipeline to land, compressed there, and delivered to customers. By the end of 2024, the company aims to reach a production capacity of 22 tons per day; by 2026, this should increase to 80 tons.
Photos
Sealhyfe: Green hydrogen was produced offshore in a pilot project on the “Wavegem” platform from GEPS Techno (left). The electricity comes from the floating wind turbine “Floatgen” (BW Ideol) at the SEM-REV test site at sea off the French Atlantic coast. © Lhyfe
