The Anonymous Widower

EU Backs Orsted Team On Green Hydrogen Initiative

The title of this post, is the same as that as that of this article on renews.biz.

This is the sub-title of the article.

European Commission Funding For The Oyster Project That Also Includes Siemens Gamesa, Element Energy and ITM Power

There is a press release on ITM Power’s web site.

This paragraph sums up the project.

ITM Power, Ørsted, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy, and Element Energy have been awarded EUR 5 million in funding from The Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH2-JU) under the European Commission to demonstrate and investigate a combined wind turbine and electrolyser system designed for operation in marine environments.

This is said about the design of the electrolyser.

The electrolyser system will be designed to be compact, to allow it to be integrated with a single offshore wind turbine, and to follow the turbine’s production profile. Furthermore, the electrolyser system will integrate desalination and water treatment processes, making it possible to use seawater as a feedstock for the electrolysis process.

It looks like it will be a standalone turbine, that instead of producing electricity it will produce hydrogen.

This paragraph gives the objective of the project.

The OYSTER project partners share a vision of hydrogen being produced from offshore wind at a cost that is competitive with natural gas (with a realistic carbon tax), thus unlocking bulk markets for green hydrogen making a meaningful impact on CO2 emissions, and facilitating the transition to a fully renewable energy system in Europe.

The project will run from 2021 to 2024.

When I first heard about creating hydrogen offshore with a combined wind-turbine and electrolyser, I thought this could be the way to go.

It’s certainly a way to produce large quantities of green hydrogen.

But I also feel, the process has a serious rival in Shell’s Blue Hydrogen Process, which uses a catalyst to split methane into hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

Shell will need uses for the carbon dioxide or worked-out gas fields to store it.

January 9, 2021 - Posted by AnonW | Energy, Hydrogen | Ørsted, iTM Power, Shell Blue Hydrogen Process, Siemens, Wind Power