Seven energy and maritime companies collaborate on hydrogen

Deme, Engie, Exmar, Fluxys, Port of Antwerp, Port of Zeebrugge and WaterstofNet negotiated and inked this agreement in which they will explore efficient, economic solutions for hydrogen's transport. At the same time, companies' agreement meet with Begium's climate goal for 2050 to cut CO2 emissions dramatically.

Specifically, partners' first step is to create a joint analysis of the entire hydrogen import and transport chain. Their goal is to map the financial, technical and regulatory factors of the various elements in the logistics chain: production, loading and unloading and transport by sea or via pipelines.

The results of the analysis will assist in finding the best way to transport hydrogen for the various applications in the energy and chemical field and of course in developing other similar projects. While is expected to be completed within a year.

"Thanks to this unique partnership of ports and industry, Belgium can play a leading role in the green hydrogen economy and further reduce CO2 emissions." said Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of Deme. By bringing their expertise together, these seven stakeholders will offer important perspectives for a further large-scale rollout of hydrogen application.

We want to help investigate how the hydrogen gas transport chain can be developed in the most efficient and economic way. This way, our long-standing expertise in the transport and transformation of gas in the safest way can support all initiatives for the large-scale use of hydrogen gas.

... noted Nicolas Saverys, CEO of Exmar.

With the aim of hydrogen replacing fossil fuels as an energy source in transport, partners focus to slash CO2 emissions drastically and be part of this growing hydrogen economy.

Moreover, hydrogen is an important carrier for renewable energy, used for electricity and heat production, for mobility, for fuel production and as a raw material for industrial production.

Overall apart from Belgium, several countries have made a step toward in reducing shipping emissions and aim to face the climate change, such as the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.