Shell, Uniper to jointly drive development of hydrogen economy in Europe
Exploring the infrastructure for large scale transport of hydrogen and CO2 from coastal regions and offshore winds farms to the inland will be at the centre of the collaboration.
Shell Gas & Power Developments and Uniper Hydrogen have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe. Under the MoU they intend to find joint opportunities to couple industrial and mobility demand with hydrogen supply, production and storage, according to a joint press release.
The companies will begin by assessing the opportunity to develop potential synergies to accelerate existing projects in Germany, the Netherlands and potentially other European countries.
Exploring future options including the necessary infrastructure for large scale transport of hydrogen and CO2 from the ports of Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) – the industrial heartland of Germany – will be at the centre of the announced collaboration.
Among the projects considered will be Shell’s Rheinland transformation where work is ongoing to transform an existing refining asset into a state-of-the-art energy and chemicals park. Shell officially opened a 10MW PEM electrolyser, the largest of its kind in Europe, on July 2nd and are working with partners to expand the capacity to 100MW.
Uniper will further explore the supply of hydrogen from the existing Uniper production sites at Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland locations at Wesseling and Godorf. In addition, Uniper intends to connect its power plant in Gelsenkirchen Scholven as well as some large-scale customers with its coastal hydrogen production plants.
