Shell has announced plans to build Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant, some of which will be used for production of jet fuel products.
The energy company said on July 6, 2022, that it had made the decision to invest in the plant, to be called Holland Hydrogen I and which will be operational in 2025.
Shell said its ambition was to help build a “global hydrogen economy” by developing options for production, storage, transport and delivery of hydrogen to end customers and that Holland Hydrogen I was an important milestone.
“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,” commented Anna Mascolo, Executive Vice President, Emerging Energy Solutions at Shell.
Hydrogen infrastructure is one of the issues facing aviation companies that are working on hydrogen-electric powertrains for aircraft.
British-US company ZeroAvia outlined some of the challenges in developing hydrogen infrastructure at airports in a recent interview with AeroTime. The company has constructed its own landside to airside hydrogen pipeline as a test and is also looking at options for creating green hydrogen onsite at airports.
Shell said in its statement that it will construct a 200MW electrolyser on the Tweede Maasvlakte in the port of Rotterdam, producing up to 60,000 kilograms of renewable hydrogen per day. The renewable power for the electrolyser will come from an offshore wind farm partly owned by Shell.
Shell said the hydrogen produced by the plant will be transported to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam via pipeline where it will replace some of the grey hydrogen used in the refinery.
“This will partially decarbonise the facility’s production of energy products like petrol and diesel and jet fuel,” Shell explained in the statement.