Sweco, an engineering firm with a division in Puurs, was in charge of the design and preparation of the environmental permit for Vlissingen’s 25 megawatt green hydrogen production facility. This facility will create 3.6 million kg of green hydrogen per year once it is finished.
Sweco is in charge of the whole design, as well as the necessary permissions and subsidies, during the initial phase of the project. We are able to complete the full project in its entirety thanks to an international team of Belgian and Dutch professionals. Sweco is also working on other green hydrogen projects in the Netherlands and Belgium, including compression, cooling, and storage modalities that meet the stringent safety standards for hydrogen at high pressure.
“Sweco has significant technical competence in the designing of industrial process systems and plays a particular, worldwide, pioneering role in hydrogen projects,” says Tom Van Den Noortgaete, Division Director Energy at Sweco Belgium. As a result, we are quite pleased with the approval of this permit: it represents the first significant step in the Benelux’s transition to a hydrogen economy. Green hydrogen paves the way for a more sustainable economy and society. The hydrogen generated by VoltH2 can be used as a feedstock for local industry or as a low-carbon transportation fuel.
“The permission for the green hydrogen installation was filed at the end of April 2021,” says Sara Vander Beken, Team Manager and design lead. It was a first because a licensing body had to make such a judgment for the first time. Hydrogen generation, processing, and storage is a relatively new discovery, as a result of which a comprehensive information loop was supplied. We got together with local officials early on to update them about the progress of such groundbreaking initiatives. Green hydrogen creates numerous beneficial consequences for the region, both economically and in terms of energy, according to the local authorities engaged.”
Green hydrogen is produced at this projected hydrogen factory in Vlissingen using power supplied by offshore wind turbines. The structure is built with technology that has been successfully used in industry and is accessible from a variety of vendors. The incorporation of hydrogen storage can potentially supply local filling stations. The green hydrogen plant will be scalable to 100 megawatts (MW) and capable of producing about 15 million kg of green hydrogen per year due to its design. By way of contrast, a passenger vehicle can go roughly 100 kilometers using the energy from 1 kilogram of hydrogen.
