(Wessling) – At the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland in Wesseling, the PEM electrolysis facility called “Refhyne” has started operations for the production of green hydrogen. The plant run by the European consortium consisting of Shell, ITM Power, SINTEF, Sphera and Element Energy has an output of ten megawatts. According to the information, it will produce up to 1.300 tons of hydrogen per year. The project was funded by the EU Fuels Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU). Shell is already planning to build a plant ten times larger: “Refhyne II” will have an output of 100 megawatts, and construction is scheduled to begin in 2022.
The group wants to “become the leading provider of green hydrogen for industrial and transport customers in Germany,” said Huibert Vigeveno, board member of Royal Dutch Shell, at the opening event. The entire value chain is taken into account, from the entry into electricity production with offshore wind to the expansion of capacity for hydrogen production through to sales across all sectors.
The groundbreaking ceremony for the first plant at the Shell Rheinland Refinery's Wesseling plant took place in June 2019. The investment sum at the time was 16 million euros, of which the European Fuel Cell Hydrogen Joint Undertaking reportedly contributed ten million euros.
Shell aims to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050 at the latest and reduce the number of global refinery locations to five. These will be transferred to the Shell Energy and Chemical Parks division. As a result, the group's global production of fossil fuels will fall by 2030 percent by 55.
In the Rhineland, petroleum will be used less frequently for chemical and energy products in the future, but hydrogen, circular waste materials and biomass will be used more frequently. To achieve this, old systems should be dismantled, new ones created and existing ones converted or repurposed. In addition to the 100-megawatt Refhyne II electrolysis plant, a power-to-liquid plant is planned in which synthetic aviation fuels and raw gasoline will be produced from green electricity and biomass.
In addition, they want to develop an energy campus in Wesseling. “Here, companies, start-ups, research institutions and other players can advance the development of technologies for the energy transition,” said the director of the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rhineland, Marco Richrath.
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https://www.refhyne.eu/shell-starts-up-europes-largest-pem-green-hydrogen-electrolyser/
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Shell has put a ten megawatt electrolyser into operation / © Shell Deutschland GmbH
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Graphical representation of Shell's Refhyne project / © Shell Deutschland GmbH
