Japanese oil company Eneos has promised to invest A$200m ($130m) into a new type of electrolyser in Queensland, Australia, which can directly produce a liquid organic hydrogen carrier, methylcyclohexane (MCH), from water and a chemical called toluene that is present in gasoline.The Japanese company had previously installed a 150kW pilot “Direct MCH” plant in Queensland in January, to demonstrate a technology which converts water (H2O) and toluene (C7H8) to oxygen (O2) and MCH (C7H14) in a single step.MCH is a clear, colourless liquid that has similar properties to other hydrocarbons, meaning it can be stored and transported using standard oil-industry equipment — a far more attractive proposition, in principle, than transporting highly toxic ammonia or liquid H2 that requires temperatures of minus-253°C.MCH would then be converted back to toluene and H2 at its destination in a high-temperature catalytic process, with the toluene returned to the production site for re-use.A test shipment of MCH had been sent from the pilot plant in Queensland to Japan as part of the trial, which was then used to fill the tanks of fuel-cell vehicles.The new plant will have around 5MW of electrolysis capacity capable of producing the equivalent of 680kg of H2 per day,…
California will spend $1.4bn of public money on building new hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) and EV chargers, after Governor Gavin Newsom’s plan was approved by the state regulator, the California Energy Commission (CEC).Details about the hydrogen part of the plan are thin, but an official statement from the CEC hints that the HRSs will be designed to cater for heavy-duty trucks.The CEC stated that “these investments will help deploy infrastructure for light, medium and heavy-duty zero-emissions vehicles across California, expanding the most extensive charging and hydrogen refueling network in the country”.But it adds: “The funds approved today will result in nearly 17,000 new light-duty chargers statewide”, without giving a corresponding number for HRSs.As only light-duty EV chargers will be built using the new funding, and the statement refers to infrastructure for medium and heavy-duty vehicles, this suggests that the H2 infrastructure will cater for the larger vehicles.Last year, plans were approved to ban all diesel-powered heavy-duty vehicles in the state by 2042, with the purchase of new diesel trucks forbidden from 2036.The new funding will become available through the state’s existing Clean Transportation Program “over the next four years and distributed to projects through competitive grants,” the CEC adds.The programme…
German gas company VNG and hydrogen project developer HyCC have announced plans for a 500MW green hydrogen project near the Piesteritz Chemical Park in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.VNG and HyCC aim to reach a final investment decision on the facility, called “GreenRoot”, in 2026, with a start of operations scheduled for 2029.Hydrogen Insight has reached out to confirm whether all 500MW of capacity will be on line by 2029, or if the project will be built in phases.If fully built by 2029, it would be one of the largest in Germany, with nearly five-times more capacity than has been installed in the country to date.Germany targets 10GW of electrolyser capacity by 2030 to meet a share of its expected 95-130TWh of demand by that year. However, green hydrogen projects within the country have been hampered by high power prices and a lack of certainty around offtake.GreenRoot’s site would be in the immediate vicinity of SKW Piesteritz, Germany’s largest ammonia and urea producer, which has already indicated that it is willing to offtake volumes of green H2 for its operations — although no formal offtake agreement appears to have been signed.However, VNG and HyCC suggest that GreenRoot will be connected to…
Tests have begun on the use of green hydrogen in an industrial furnace at bottle-making factory in Sweden — and the preliminary results suggest that using green H2 will have no impact on the quality of glass produced, or on the furnace, the company behind the programme said yesterday (Tuesday).Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group is replacing some of the fossil gas it uses in the furnace at its facility in Limmared, Sweden with green hydrogen produced from a 5MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser on-site.The heat from Ardagh’s Limmered furnace is used to melt together raw cullet (ground up recycled glass), sand, soda ash, limestone and dolomite into new glass that can be made into bottles for the drinks industry.So far, Ardagh has burned 109,000 cubic metres of green hydrogen from the electrolyser since the testing programme began at the start of October.However, it has not revealed what proportion of fossil gas this replaces in the fuel mix, although it states that the aim of the programme is to replace 20% of its gas burn with renewable H2.“The testing phase using the hydrogen energy mix is progressing well, with no impact on the quality of the glass or the furnace, said Daniel…
Green steel developer Stegra has agreed two power supply deals for its 700MW renewable hydrogen and steel project, which is currently under construction in Boden, Sweden and due to start operation in early 2026.The deals amount to 8.25TWh of electricity supply, with 6TWh coming from Germany’s Uniper over six years, and a further 2.25TWh coming from Switzerland-based power trader Axpo over three years, both beginning in 2027.Neither company has revealed the generation source of the electricity supplied under the deals, although Axpo currently has around 24TWh of renewable power from wind and solar “under management” in the Nordic region.Stegra — formerly known as H2 Green Steel — has been working to procure vast quantities of power for the first phase of the Boden plant, which will produce 2.5 million tonnes of steel from direct-reduced iron (DRI), which will be made with green hydrogen produced at the site.As well as requiring electricity for 700MW of electrolysers, it must also power an electric arc furnace at the plant.The company told Hydrogen Insight earlier this year that it had secured 40-50% of its power needs for phase one from hydropower and onshore wind.In 2022, it bagged a 14TWh, seven-year power supply deal with…
California’s Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) has signed off a $78m plan to buy 50 zero emissions buses, 40 of which will be powered by hydrogen fuel cells and the remainder powered solely by batteries.The 40 hydrogen fuel cell buses from Canadian manufacturer New Flyer will cost OCTA $63.3m — around $1.6m per bus — while the remaining ten battery-electric models will cost $13.9m, or $1.4m per vehicle.Both sets of buses, which are due to enter into service in late 2026, will be used to replace existing vehicles powered by compressed natural gas, which are coming to the end of their lifetimes.This will allow OCTA to comply with Californian regulations demanding that at least 50% of new vehicle purchases by 2026 are powered by zero-emissions technology — a figure that will rise to 100% by 2029.By 2040, all vehicles owned by public transit authorities in California, both existing and new, must be zero emissions.The decision to lean so heavily into hydrogen fuel cell technology comes after OCTA conducted trials of ten each of H2-powered and battery-powered models in 2020 and 2022 respectively.The ten hydrogen buses tested as part of the trial are still in service, meaning that Orange County will…
A 10GW green hydrogen hub in the Malaysian state of Sabah, on the northern tip of Borneo, has been announced by a consortium of developers and state agencies.Property developer LBS is set to lead the project, with support from government-backed investment promoter Invest Sabah Berhad, state environmental agency Sabah Forestry Development Authority (SAFODA) and lighting supplier Midwest Green Sdn Bhd.LBS plans to develop a site ranging from 15,000 acres to 30,000 acres in the district of Kota Marudu, building an electrolyser facility capable of producing 250,000 tonnes a year of H2 as well as a co-located green industrial park.Unlike the neighbouring state of Sarawak, which sources most of its electricity from hydropower, Sabah depends mainly on natural gas for its grid. As such, LBS plans to build out new wind and solar capacity.“This Kota Marudu land is uniquely positioned to support green energy generation, boasting some of the highest solar irradiance levels in Malaysia and consistent high wind speeds, ideal for renewable energy production,” the property developer noted in a press statement.“Additionally, the site’s proximity to nearby seaports will facilitate efficient export logistics, enhancing its potential as a regional green energy hub.”However, LBS has not given a timeline for when…
Japanese auto giant Toyota has developed a system to recycle “boil-off” gas for liquid hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.While liquid H2 has a higher energy density by volume than compressed gas, which would reduce refuelling costs, the molecules must also be kept at temperatures below minus-253°C, or close to absolute zero.However, there is an inherent problem with storing liquid hydrogen — ambient temperatures cause H2 at the edges of storage tanks to warm up, turning it into a gas (known as “boil-off”), which must be vented to prevent a build-up of pressure that could cause the tank to explode.Currently, hydrogen boil-off is released straight into the atmosphere, which presents a problem both for project economics (since expensive volumes of H2 are lost) and environmental impact (since hydrogen acts as an indirect greenhouse gase).As such, Toyota has developed a new system for liquid-hydrogen-fuelled vehicles that uses the boil-off gas to generate energy on the move, which it has trialled in its GR Corolla H2 Concept, a car which has a hydrogen-based internal combustion engine.In this system, when boil-off gas builds up in the storage tank, it is vented into “a self-pressuriser”, which increases pressure by between two and four times without using external electricity.…
Scandinavian airline SAS, Copenhagen Airport and Aalborg Airport have signed an agreement with renewables developer Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners to form “a joint and united front” to support green hydrogen-based synthetic aviation fuel production in Denmark.CIP is developing Fjord PtX, an e-SAF plant in the city of Aalborg, estimated to cost between €1.5bn ($1.58bn) and €2bn.The developer has set out a timeline for construction to begin in 2025 and a start of full operations in 2028.However, its partners on the project — engineering firm COWI and industrial site operator Norbis Park — both suggest that construction is more likely to begin in 2026, with full operations before 2030.While CIP has not confirmed how much electrolyser capacity will be installed at the plant, but it expects to produce 90,000 tonnes of aviation fuel per year, equivalent to the total annual fuel consumption of domestic flights within Denmark.CIP also estimates that Fjord PtX will consume 1.5TWh of electricity per year, or less than 5% of the country’s total electricity demand, while generating enough waste heat for approximately 7,000 households.“We have been developing our project for the past three years, and today’s agreement with the most important actors in Danish aviation is a positive…
US electrolyser manufacturer Electric Hydrogen is to supply 200MW of its proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysers for a Uniper’s gigawatt-scale Wilhelmshaven green hydrogen project in northern Germany, the Massachusetts-based company said today (Monday).The deal marks Electric Hydrogen’s first entry into the European market, with electrolysers set for installation in Germany.Uniper, one of Germany’s biggest utilities, plans to deploy 1GW of electrolysers at its site in Wilhelmshaven, capable of supplying 300,000 tonnes of hydrogen a year, or 10-20% of expected German demand in 2030, alongside an ammonia import facility, with a view to becoming a major hydrogen distribution hub.Under the deal announced today, Electric Hydrogen will design and build a 200MW green hydrogen plant at Wilhelmshaven, and build its PEM electrolysers nearby on a site that previously hosted Uniper’s coal-fired power station.The company began preliminary front-end engineering and design (FEED) work on the plant last month, and plans to launch its 100MW electrolyser system for deployment in the wider European market in 2026.“Decisive factors in the selection of the electrolysis technology were Electric Hydrogen's advanced proton exchange membrane electrolysis (PEM) technology and the company’s offering of a fully integrated plant design to minimise hydrogen production costs,” Electric Hydrogen said in statement.Both…
Korean automaker Hyundai has unveiled a new hydrogen car that it plans to mass produce from the middle of next year.The Initium hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) has a targeted driving range of more than 650km (404 miles), which the company says is one of its “biggest advantages”, even though many battery-electric cars officially have longer ranges.“Hyundai Motor’s clear, unwavering commitment to hydrogen over the past 27 years is rooted in our belief in its potential as a clean, accessible and therefore fair energy source for everyone,” says CEO Jae-hoon Chang.“We are dedicated to pioneering a future where hydrogen is used by everyone, in everything, and everywhere.”Chang told a promotional event near Seoul earlier today that the Initium is “scheduled to be mass-produced starting in the middle of next year”.“The exact price will be announced at the time of the vehicle release... it will be set at a level that consumers and the market can accept,” he added.Hydrogen Insight understands that this model will replace the Nexo, which has not had a major update since it was first released in 2018, and has seen disappointing sales in recent times.The automaker says that its new vehicle concept marks the debut of…
Germany energy firm RWE has secured the construction and environmental permits to build a 100MW electrolyser near the Magnum Power Station in the Dutch port city of Eemshaven.The green hydrogen project will source power from the OranjeWind offshore wind farm, a 795MW array in the North Sea that RWE is building in partnership with French oil & gas giant TotalEnergies.The oil major has previously disclosed plans to dedicate its own share of the renewable electricity production from the OranjeWind offshore wind project to power 350MW in electrolyser projects to produce green hydrogen to reduce emissions at its refineries in Northern Europe.RWE had bought the Magnum power station in Eemshaven from Swedish peer Vattenfall in 2022. The 1.4GW plant in the northern Dutch province of Groningen is able to co-fire up to 30% of hydrogen with natural gas, and the utility had said on acquisition that it could convert the plant to rely on hydrogen as its sole fuel by the end of the decade.However, blending hydrogen with natural gas for power generation will not deliver significant climate benefits given the high cost of producing green H2. Since hydrogen is less energy-dense than methane, a 20% H2 blend by volume would…
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a “notice of funding opportunity” for up to $46m of “financial assistance awards” to “accelerate the research, development and demonstration of adorable clean-hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies”.“Advancing and demonstrating critical hydrogen and fuel cell technologies will help to drive decarbonization across challenging sectors, such as heavy-duty transportation and industrial and chemical processes,” said the DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, which will administer the grants.Funding will be available under four “topic areas”:1) Photoelectrochemical water splitting device scale-upProposals to develop and demonstrate machines that use solar power to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for an electrolyser will be considered if using “low-cost scalable synthesis and fabrication techniques”.2) High-performance materials for hydrogen service, including cryogenic and/or high-pressure conditionsThis topic area covers “advanced materials for use in high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks, cryogenic service conditions, and fiber-reinforced polymer hydrogen pipelines”.3) Sustainable high-temperature proton exchange membranes and ionomers for heavy-duty transportation applicationsThis section is for the development of fuel-cell membranes and ionomers (types of polymers that can be electrically charged) suitable for high-temperature operation of up to 120C in heavy-duty transport4) Domestic hydrogen fuel-cell electric motorcoach bus development and demonstrationHere, the DOE…
Germany energy firm RWE has secured the construction and environmental permits to build a 100MW electrolyser near the Magnum Power Station in the Dutch port city of Eemshaven.The green hydrogen project will source power from the OranjeWind offshore wind farm, a 795MW array in the North Sea that RWE is building in partnership with French oil & gas giant TotalEnergies.The oil major has previously disclosed plans to dedicate its own share of the renewable electricity production from the OranjeWind offshore wind project to power 350MW in electrolyser projects to produce green hydrogen to reduce emissions at its refineries in Northern Europe.RWE had bought the Magnum power station in Eemshaven from Swedish peer Vattenfall in 2022. The 1.4GW plant in the northern Dutch province of Groningen is able to co-fire up to 30% of hydrogen with natural gas, and the utility had said on acquisition that it could convert the plant to rely on hydrogen as its sole fuel by the end of the decade.However, blending hydrogen with natural gas for power generation will not deliver significant climate benefits given the high cost of producing green H2. Since hydrogen is less energy-dense than methane, a 20% H2 blend by volume would…
The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a “notice of funding opportunity” for up to $46m of “financial assistance awards” to “accelerate the research, development and demonstration of adorable clean-hydrogen and fuel-cell technologies”.“Advancing and demonstrating critical hydrogen and fuel cell technologies will help to drive decarbonization across challenging sectors, such as heavy-duty transportation and industrial and chemical processes,” said the DOE’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, which will administer the grants.Funding will be available under four “topic areas”:1) Photoelectrochemical water splitting device scale-upProposals to develop and demonstrate machines that use solar power to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen without the need for an electrolyser will be considered if using “low-cost scalable synthesis and fabrication techniques”.2) High-performance materials for hydrogen service, including cryogenic and/or high-pressure conditionsThis topic area covers “advanced materials for use in high-pressure hydrogen storage tanks, cryogenic service conditions, and fiber-reinforced polymer hydrogen pipelines”.3) Sustainable high-temperature proton exchange membranes and ionomers for heavy-duty transportation applicationsThis section is for the development of fuel-cell membranes and ionomers (types of polymers that can be electrically charged) suitable for high-temperature operation of up to 120C in heavy-duty transport4) Domestic hydrogen fuel-cell electric motorcoach bus development and demonstrationHere, the DOE…
Public transport company San Mateo County Transit District, known locally as SamTrans, has placed the largest ever firm order for hydrogen-powered buses in North America, with a deal for 108 of Canadian manufacturer New Flyer’s Xcelsior Charge FC vehicles.The purchase was approved by the SamTrans board last December to replace diesel buses coming to the end of their working lives, agreeing a contract price of up to $168.25m — although the final cost of the order has not been revealed.SamTrans was awarded $15m by the California Transportation Commission in June to help it buy the 108 12-metre low-floor fuel-cell electric buses (FCEBs), which have a range of more than 300 miles (483km).This range will “meet or exceed the route needs within the district”, said Sam Trans chairman Josh Powell back in December.California requires all transport agencies in the state to transition their bus fleets to zero-emissions by 2040, with most opting to focus on battery-electric buses (BEBs).SamTrans has 17 BEBs in operation and is preparing to roll out another 20 by the end of this year, in addition to ten previously-ordered FCEBs, the first of which is due to begin operation this winter.The FCEBs are due to use green hydrogen…
Indian green hydrogen project developer Hygenco says it is already selling some of its renewable H2 for a lower price than grey hydrogen produced from unabated natural gas.“For some 20-year contracts, we have priced green hydrogen below [grey] hydrogen, and we are still making money on that,” Anshul Gupta, co-founder of Hygenco, said in an interview with financial news agency Bloomberg.Gupta estimated that grey H2 costs between $2.70 and $4 per kilogram in India, although he did not provide specific prices for renewable hydrogen produced at Hygenco’s two operational projects.Hydrogen Insight has reached out to Hygenco for further detail on these offtake agreements.Growing demand for natural gas in India has meant the country’s imports of methane have increased by more than 8,000% since 2003. This past summer saw more than two million tonnes of expensive LNG delivered per month between May and July.As such, part of the Indian government’s push for green hydrogen is to displace imported natural gas with domestic renewables and thereby bolster energy security.Hygenco currently operates two green hydrogen projects. The first, commissioned in 2022, is a pilot plant drawing on power from a 75MW solar array and a 200MW wind farm, although the exact electrolyser capacity…
