(Essen) – The operating company “Nukleus Green H2”, a subsidiary of RWE AG, has received permission from the Oldenburg trade supervisory office to construct and operate the first two 100-megawatt electrolyzers on the grounds of the Emsland natural gas power plant in Lingen. According to the company, this will allow for the cumulative production of up to 35.000 tons of green hydrogen annually.
The authorities involved had to examine “a plant of this size for the first time,” says Sopna Sury, COO Hydrogen at RWE Generation SE. Once the application was complete, the approval took around seven months. This is a reference value that is “optimistic” for the ramp-up of the hydrogen economy in Germany. The complete application consists of 2.250 pages. The 78-page permit specifies in detail which technical, organizational and environmental requirements must be met during construction and operation.
300 megawatts in final expansion
As part of the “GET H2” project, a consortium of industry and science wants to build an approximately 130-kilometer-long pipeline network from Lingen to Gelsenkirchen. The test pipeline is intended to collect knowledge about the transport and storage of hydrogen that RWE produces in Lingen. By 2027, the aim is to install hydrogen generation capacities of 100 megawatts in 300 megawatt increments.
In February, RWE announced that it had already ordered two 100-megawatt proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers from the plant engineering company Linde Engineering . The energy company plans to commission the first of the two plants in Emsland next year. The second plant will be started up a year later.
GET H2 Nukleus is one of the large-scale hydrogen projects that were nominated by the federal and state governments in May 2021 for funding as part of the “Program for Important Projects of Overarching European Interest” (IPCEI). However, “a binding funding commitment is still pending,” the company said.
Nevertheless, the electrolysers were ordered from Linde so that when the expected commitment was received, the planning dates and commissioning were met. RWE and the Japanese turbine manufacturer Kawasaki Heavy Industries also want to install a hydrogen-capable gas turbine in Lingen by 2024 in order to test the reconversion of hydrogen into electricity.
Delivery of the Sunfire pressure alkaline system for the pilot plant in April. © RWE AG
By the end of 2023, RWE will initially commission a 14-megawatt pilot plant there to gain experience with two electrolysis technologies. In April, eight modules of a pressure alkaline electrolyzer from the Dresden-based manufacturer Sunfire GmbH arrived at the construction site. The components, each weighing 15 tons, will be assembled there into two stacks, each just under ten meters long, with a combined output of ten megawatts. RWE also ordered a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer with an output of four megawatts from Linde.
Sketch of the planned pilot plant in Lingen. © RWE AG
Using electricity from renewable energy sources, up to 290 kilograms of green hydrogen per hour will then be produced in Emsland. During the pilot phase, the turbine is tested in operating load ranges between 30 and 100 percent. “This corresponds to the load curves of gas turbines that are to be expected in a power grid with a high proportion of renewable energies that fluctuate due to weather conditions,” says a statement from May last year. The state of Lower Saxony is funding the Lingen project with eight million euros.
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RWE wants to produce hydrogen at the Lingen power plant site. © RWE AG
