Global major in offshore wind, Ørsted along with the energy player, Bp inked a Letter of Intent (LOI) so as to develop a large-scale renewable hydrogen project at a refinery in north-west Germany.
Through their collaboration, the two firms intend to build an initial 50 megawatt (MW) electrolyser and associated infrastructure at bp’s Lingen Refinery in north-west Germany.
Namely, their proposed Lingen Green Hydrogen project will be powered by renewable energy generated by an Ørsted offshore wind farm in the North Sea, as the hydrogen produced will be used in the refinery.
Renewable hydrogen has to become cost competitive with fossil-based hydrogen, and for that we need projects such as this with bp’s Lingen refinery which will demonstrate the electrolyser technology at large scale and showcase real-life application of hydrogen based on offshore wind.”
….Martin Neubert, executive vice president and CEO of offshore wind for Ørsted, added.
Under their agreement, the two majors will make a final investment decision (FID) early 2022, subject to appropriate enabling policies being in place. The companies anticipate the project could be operational by 2024.
What is more, the 50 MW electrolyser project is expected to produce one tonne an hour of green hydrogen or almost 9,000 tonnes a year.
This would be sufficient to replace around 20% of the refinery’s current grey hydrogen consumption, avoiding around 80,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions a year.
Bringing together Ørsted and bp, Lingen Green Hydrogen offers the opportunity both to accelerate significant emissions reduction in our refinery and build experience of large-scale green hydrogen production and deployment. This has the potential to play an important role in the development of a hydrogen economy, in Germany and beyond.
…as Dev Sanyal, Executive vice president, gas & low carbon energy, BP, stated.
Concluding, bp and Ørsted will further focus on maximising the efficiency of the project’s electrolysis system, including assessing sustainable uses for the main by-products of the process, primarily oxygen and low-grade excess heat.