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…

A project to produce more than 250,000 tonnes a year of sustainable aviation fuel in Rotterdam from green hydrogen-based methanol has been unveiled today by Dutch developer Power2X and Rotterdam-based storage tank operator Advario.The EU mandates in its RefuelEU legislation that at least 1.2% of aviation fuel used in planes departing EU airports by 2030 must be made using renewable H2 that meets the definition set out by a Delegated Act.As such, Power2X and Advario anticipate that their project will meet at least 40% of European demand for green hydrogen-based aviation fuels by 2030, although a firm date for a final investment decision on the €1.5bn ($1.6bn) facility has not been set.The hub will be developed on a 26-hectare site at the Port of Rotterdam that Advario had acquired from Aluchemie in 2023, which is set to have any remaining structures fully demolished by the end of 2025 in order for Advario to begin construction on new facilities.The e-fuels project, which would be sited close to existing hydrogen and CO2 pipelines, will not produce hydrogen or methanol on-site.Instead, a spokesperson for Power2X confirms the facility will use 750,000 tonnes a year of both locally sourced and imported methanol, as long…

Production of electrolysers has started at Cummins’ 500MW factory in Spain, the company’s plant director has revealed, making the US firm one of Europe’s largest suppliers of PEM equipment for green hydrogen.Cummins began producing its proton exchange membrane (PEM) machines at the facility in Guadalajara, central Spain, in April, shortly after the company received its operation licence from the regional government, David Heredero Olayo, the site’s plant director told local newspaper SER.The plant will be formally opened in October this year, he said.The factory, first announced in 2021, was originally intended to be finished last year. Olayo gave no explanation for the delay — nor when he expects the plant to be operating at full 500MW capacity — but pointed out that construction of the 20,000 square-foot (1,858 square-metre) facility was completed in 14 months.It now employs 65 people, he said, with more set to be hired in the second half of 2024.“We are growing very fast,” he told the newspaper. “The forecast is that we will reach more than 100 people next year.”Cummins says it has built the Guadalajara factory with the capability of scaling to 1GW which, if realised, would make the facility one of the biggest in…

A gas distributor in Germany says its network is ready for hydrogen blends of up to 30%, following a successful pilot project in its home state of Baden-Württemberg.Stuttgart-based Netze BW — the largest electricity, gas and water network operator in the state — said that its gas distribution network is “fundamentally capable of transporting climate-friendly hydrogen” after completing its Hydrogen Island Öhringen scheme.The project involved a Netze BW property and 26 adjacent households in which the amount of hydrogen in an islanded gas grid was gradually increased until it hit a blend of 30% H2 (and 70% natural gas).“The 30% hydrogen addition worked without any problems,” said Martin Konermann, Netze BW’s managing director for technology. “No complex adjustments to the existing infrastructure were necessary — neither for Netze BW with regard to the gas network, not for end consumers with regard to their gas boilers and stoves.”Last week, Brussels-based non-profit organisation Environmental Coalition on Standards released a report saying that it found that a 20% hydrogen blend more than doubled leaks from existing domestic gas cookers compared to using fossil gas, when used under normal household conditions. And it added that existing gas boilers saw an emissions increase of 44%…

A Swedish company building a pioneering green iron project that will use hydrogen to make tens of thousands of tonnes of direct-reduced iron (DRI, also known as sponge iron) has received the final permits it needs to build and operate its plant.GreenIron has been granted permission by the Land and Environment Court in Östersund to process up to 30,000 tonnes per year of waste material to make up to 21,000 tonnes of DRI per year at its full-scale plant currently under construction in Sandviken,120km north of Stockholm.The project — which is scheduled to come on line this year —will use 1,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, supplied by industrial gases firm Linde under a firm binding contract that has already been agreed, GreenIron told Hydrogen Insight.Green hydrogen-based DRI (together with electric arc furnace smelting) has been touted as the most promising pathway to decarbonise steel production, which accounts for 7-8% of all global emissions, predominantly on account of the use of coking coal as a reduction agent to make pure iron suitable for steelmaking (see panel below).But unlike most commercial-scale DRI plants typically operated by steel manufacturers, which usually process iron ore that has been mined, into sponge iron,…