Shell consortium plans bulk hydrogen production project

A consortium of Shell Deutschland Oil and Shell Energy Europe with partners ITM Power, SINTEF, thinkstep and Element Energy plans a project to install a large scale electrolyser to produce hydrogen at the Wesseling refinery site within the Rheinland Refinery Complex. With a capacity of ten megawatts, this would be the largest unit of its kind in Germany and the world’s largest PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) electrolyser.
September 4, 2017 Read time: 2 mins

A consortium of Shell Deutschland Oil and Shell Energy Europe with partners ITM Power, SINTEF, thinkstep and Element Energy plans a project to install a large scale electrolyser to produce hydrogen at the Wesseling refinery site within the Rheinland Refinery Complex.

With a capacity of ten megawatts, this would be the largest unit of its kind in Germany and the world’s largest PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) electrolyser. This electrolyser technology is also suitable to improve the stability of the electricity grid with a growing share of intermittent renewable energy sources, such as from solar and wind.

The consortium has been invited to the preparation of a grant agreement by the European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen 2 Joint Undertaking (FCH 2 JU), following a competitive call for proposals.

Today, the refinery uses approximately 180,000 tons of hydrogen per year in its various plants. The hydrogen is currently produced as a by-product of the refining process or through natural gas reforming, while electrolysis uses electricity to split water into the base components of hydrogen and oxygen.

The project aims to enable the construction and operation of a large scale10 MW electrolyser that can produce high quality hydrogen and CO2 free hydrogen while demonstrating technology and cost improvements through up-scaling and new business applications. Electrolysis using low-cost renewable electricity could be a key technology for a potential CO2 free hydrogen production in the Shell Rheinland Refinery.

Related Content

  • August 11, 2021
    Consortium to study UK eHighway feasibility 
    Partners including Siemens hope overhead electricity lines will serve major roads by 2030s
    Read More
  • March 3, 2017
    UK research team aims to develop smart electric vehicle car park
    Cenex, the UK’s first Centre of Excellence for low carbon and fuel cell technologies, is to be part of the team carrying out a project to establish the feasibility of turning a Solihull car park into a MW-scale battery to provide power on demand to the electricity grid. Part funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, the 12-month Net-Form project seeks to develop a secure, dynamic data management platform that collects, aggregates and optimises energy collected by large populations of grid-connected
    Read More
  • July 22, 2013
    First EU-US Interoperability Centre opens
    The first of the twin centres designed to promote common standards in electric mobility and smart grids on both sides of the Atlantic has been inaugurated at the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago. The second Centre will be opened in the EU, at the JRC sites in Petten, The Netherlands and Ispra, Italy, in 2014. The launch follows eighteen months of dedicated work following the letter of intent for closer co-operation, signed by the JRC, the European Commission's in-hous
    Read More
  • October 16, 2014
    Europe-wide demonstration of electric buses begins in Barcelona
    A major step towards greener urban public transport was made this week with the launch of the first ZeEUS (Zero Emission Urban Bus System) demonstration in Barcelona. The flagship project is the first of its kind to test 12 metre-plus electric buses in real operation. Barcelona is the first demonstration site of the UITP-coordinated ZeEUS project, with core demonstrations in seven other European cities to follow: London and Glasgow; Stockholm; Münster and Bonn, Plzen and Cagliari. In total, 35 plug-in hy
    Read More

Highlighted Content