The first hydrogen is anticipated to be generated around the start of 2023. Full operations would start a few months later, in the spring of 2023, according to a March statement from HZI. Messer Schweiz AG in Lenzburg will be the primary hydrogen consumer.
The delivery of industrial gases is their area of expertise. In addition to increasing the circular aspect of the thermal recycling facility, the new plant “will represent an important, and above all, local source of green hydrogen,” according to HZI.
According to a press statement, the Swiss-Japanese cleantech business will build the first small-scale commercial Waste to Hydrogen (WtH2) facility as part of the joint venture initiative. The facility at the GEKAL site would be planned and built by HZI, who would also serve as owner and operator for the first several years. The created hydrogen will serve as a technological gas for business and early mobility applications, such as green fuel for local public transportation and private autos. HZI proposes to use energy from the Buchs Energy from Waste (EfW) facility to electrolyze water to create hydrogen and oxygen. While the hydrogen is compressed and kept in special tanks, the oxygen will be released into the environment.
“Meeting both the SAE 2719 and ISO 14687 quality criteria for hydrogen fuel,” HZI will utilize an alkaline electrolysis technique that can generate 550 Nm3/h (standard cubic meters per hour) of green hydrogen at 350 bar. The facility would also have a gas station. Its anticipated annual output is around 200 tons of hydrogen, which is comparable to 10 to 15-gigawatt hours of energy. This was sufficient to fuel up to 1,000 fuel cell automobiles annually or a hydrogen-powered vehicle for about 20 million kilometers.
The new Green Hydrogen production plant, in accordance with the information, will be linked to the Swissgrid secondary control service framework, a unique idea for managing demand and excess supply inside the Swiss power grid. The statement said that “when a major producer falls down, secondary producers like the EfW plant in Buchs are brought online to stabilize the grid.” “So-called negative compensation is also conceivable when the volume of renewable energy generated exceeds the volume that was anticipated. In this case, the hydrogen factory will draw up to 2 MW from the grid, thus renewable energy generators like wind farms won’t need to be shut down right away or maybe ever.
