Shell has taken FID on its Holland Hydrogen 1 project, which will be Europe’s largest green hydrogen plant once operational in 2025.

The 200MW electrolyser will be constructed on the Port of Rotterdam’s Maasvlakte extension and will produce up to 60t/d of renewable hydrogen.

Power for the electrolyser will come from the Hollandse Kust Noord offshore windfarm. The Crosswind consortium—a joint venture between Shell and Dutch utility Eneco—plans to have the windfarm operational in 2023 with an installed capacity of 759MW.

“Renewable hydrogen will play a pivotal role in the energy system of the future, and this project is an important step in helping hydrogen fulfil that potential,” says Anna Mascolo, executive vice-president of emerging energy solutions at Shell.

60t/d – Green hydrogen production at Holland Hydrogen 1

The green hydrogen will be transported by the 40km Hytransport pipeline to displace some of the grey hydrogen used to make oil products in Shell’s Pernis refinery—the largest in Europe.

The green hydrogen could also be used for local transport applications as refuelling networks start to expand.

Shell has contracted Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers—a joint venture between steel firm Thyssenkrupp and technology company Industrie De Nora—to supply the 200MW alkaline electrolyser (AE). The company will engineer, procure and fabricate the plant based on its 20MW AE module.

Shell says it will take into consideration the final form of the EU’s delegated acts on what constitutes renewable hydrogen—currently being consulted on—as it works to ensure the hydrogen produced by the project is considered “renewable” under EU law.

If a windfarm is also connected to the grid as well as an electrolyser, the acts stipulate that there are three ways power to an electrolyser can be considered renewable: when hydrogen is produced within a grid where the average share of renewable power is 90pc; when the hydrogen producer has a power-purchase agreement with various criteria attached; or when curtailed electricity is used.

Building capacity

Shell has so far started up 30MW of electrolyser capacity, including a 20MW unit in China and a 10MW proton-exchange membrane unit in Germany. These have the potential to produce a total of 4,300t/yr of green hydrogen—10pc of global capacity.

Shell said in April it was looking to take FIDs on 300MW of electrolyser capacity in 2022 as it accelerates the expansion of its clean hydrogen business, the oil major says in its latest energy transition progress report, suggesting it will take FIDs on a further 100MW this year.

Shell is also involved in a carbon capture and storage project called Porthos at the Port of Rotterdam alongside ExxonMobil and industrial gases firms Air Liquide and Air Products. The project aims to transport and store a combined 2.5mn t/yr of CO₂ from 2024.

Refining firm Neste recently announced it will begin construction on a project to install a 2.4MW solid oxide high-temperature electrolyser at its renewable products refinery in Rotterdam.

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Author: Tom Young