Ørsted and bp have jointly agreed to develop a possible large-scale renewable hydrogen project at bp’s Lingen Refinery in North West Germany (Emsland).

The project, which is scheduled to be operational in 2024, will consist of a 50 megawatt (MW) electrolyser device capable of producing one ton of renewable hydrogen per hour or approximately 9,000 tons per year.

This will be sufficient to offset about 20 precent of the total fossil-based hydrogen consumption of the refinery, avoiding about 80,000 tons of CO2 equivalent emissions per year – equivalent to about 45,000 cars in Germany.

The project also aims to endorse a longer-term ambition to develop more than 500 MW of renewable hydrogen capacity in Lingen. This will supply renewable hydrogen both to satisfy all demand for hydrogen from the refinery and to provide feedstock for potential development of synthetic fuel.

The Ørsted North Sea offshore wind farm is projected to fuel the electrolyser.

“Heavy industries such as refineries use large quantities of hydrogen in their manufacturing processes. They will continue to need hydrogen, but replacing the currently fossil-based hydrogen with hydrogen produced from renewable energy can help these industries dramatically lower their CO2 footprint. But first, 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 for Ørsted.

“Hydrogen will have an increasing role to play in meeting the energy demands of a decarbonizing world. And we are determined to build a leading position in this emerging industry. 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.”

Dev Sanyal, bp’s executive vice president for gas and low carbon.

The partners jointly sought support for the Lingen Green Hydrogen project from the EU Innovation Fund, which is currently one of the largest funding programs for advanced low-carbon technology with an emphasis on energy-intensive industries, among others.

In addition to the development of green hydrogen itself, the project also focuses on optimizing the efficiency of the electrolyser system and enabling versatile operation and full integration into the refinery.

The scope of the engineering and commercial studies will therefore also include evaluations of the sustainable use of the main electrolysis by-products , in particular oxygen and low-grade excess heat.