Thyssenkrupp plans to spin off electrolyser business
Multinational conglomerate Thyssenkrupp has rebranded its electrolyser manufacturing arm as Thyssenkrupp Nucera and says an initial public offering (IPO) is its preferred option to develop the business further.
Although it is yet to make a final decision, the firm said it is targeting proceeds of €500-€600mn from any IPO of what is now Thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers. Thyssenkrupp holds two thirds of the business and Italy's De Nora holds the rest. These holdings would be reduced to 50pc and 25pc respectively in an IPO, with the balance made available to investors.
Thyssenkrupp Nucera's pipeline of five electrolysis projects increased tenfold to around €900mn in value at the end of 2021, from €90mn at the end of 2020. The company aims to expand its alkaline electrolysis manufacturing capacity to 5 GW/yr by 2025, from 1 GW/yr currently.
Nucera's business model is to support industrial customers to switch from fossil-derived grey hydrogen to renewables-derived green hydrogen for use in their processes.
In December 2021 it signed a contract to supply a 2GW of electrolyser capacity to the Neom project in Saudi Arabia, and this month agreed a deal to supply Shell with 200MW of capacity in Rotterdam.
Around 90mn t/yr of fossil hydrogen is used in refining and in industrial processes such as production of ammonia, methanol, and steel. This represents a ready-made market for green hydrogen, provided it can become cost-competitive with fossil hydrogen, but this will only be possible with subsidies and carbon taxes.
Thyssenkrupp is already a market leader in chlor-alkali electrolysis with 600 projects and 10GW capacity for production of chlorine, where hydrogen is a byproduct. It aims to build on this to capture a share of the fast-growing market for green hydrogen production, which it entered in 2010.
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Singapore, Rotterdam advance 'green' shipping corridor
Singapore, Rotterdam advance 'green' shipping corridor
Singapore, 15 April (Argus) — The Singapore-Rotterdam Green and Digital Shipping Corridor (GDSC) is accelerating its decarbonisation efforts with new partners, and is advancing initiatives to encourage the uptake of sustainable marine fuels. The world's two largest marine fuel hubs established the Singapore-Rotterdam GDSC in August 2022, in a push for maritime decarbonisation and digitalisation between the ports. There are 26 global value-chain partners in the GDSC initiative including fuel suppliers, shipping lines, knowledge partners and financial entities. German container shipping line Hapag-Lloyd is the latest partner in the Singapore-Rotterdam trade lane, committing to operate large container vessels on zero and near-zero carbon emission fuels. Hapag-Lloyd is the world's fifth-largest liner shipping firm with at least 260 ocean-going vessels, according to the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA). GDSC working groups will also pilot the uptake of sustainable marine fuels — like bio-methane, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen — and test out commercial structures to reduce cost barriers in switching to alternative fuels. This includes a bio-methane working group that is studying regulations and standards to support adopting the fuel for marine bunkering on a commercial scale. GDSC partners also plan to carry out bio-LNG bunkering pilots over 2024-25, based on a mass balancing chain of custody principle. A methanol working group is working on fuel standards and knowledge exchange, in addition to addressing common challenges to carry out commercial methanol bunkering at Singapore and Rotterdam. And an ammonia working group is developing a framework to assess the lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity of green ammonia for bunkering, to be completed by 2025. Improvements to digitalisation have also been made as part of the GDSC initiative, with Singapore and Rotterdam successfully piloting an exchange of port-to-port data. Both ports will be able to exchange vessel arrival and departure times for port planning, and ships travelling between Singapore and Rotterdam can also optimise their port call voyage. The maritime sector is pushing towards a more resilient and efficient energy transition, and participants have pointed out that collaboration between countries and stakeholders would be key to green shipping corridors . The GDSC is a "very valuable collaboration in accelerating the twin transition: the integration of digital innovation in energy transition efforts," said chief executive officer of Port of Rotterdam Authority (PoR), Boudewijn Siemons. "Not only are we seeing the first results in standardization and data sharing for Port Call Optimization but also the first steps in moving towards operationalization of zero and low carbon fuels on this trade lane." Progress on the GDSC development also reflects that "public-private collaboration across global value chains can be achieved," said MPA chief executive Teo Eng Dih. By Cassia Teo Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
EU to publish H2 bank pilot results on 30 April
EU to publish H2 bank pilot results on 30 April
Amsterdam, 10 April (Argus) — The European Commission will publish the results of its €800mn hydrogen bank pilot auction on 30 April, EU Innovation Fund policy officer Johanna Schiele said today. The commission will release a wide range of information about the successful bids, expected levelised costs of hydrogen production and the intended origin of electrolysers used in the projects, Schiele told the Reuters Hydrogen 2024 conference in Amsterdam. The ceiling price of €4.50/kg for bids submitted in the auction "was more than sufficient", she said, suggesting that successful bids may have stayed well below this threshold. Through the mechanism, the commission will award 10-year production subsidies to the renewable hydrogen projects that submitted the lowest bids in the auction. Bids closed in early February and the commission previously said that applications were submitted for 132 projects in 17 different countries , amounting to 8.5GW electrolyser capacity that could produce some 880,000 t/yr of renewable hydrogen. But only a fraction of these will likely win subsidies in this round. The commission is confident that successful projects will be built, Schiele said. Developers had to submit a completion bond for 4pc of the subsidy value which they will lose if they do not finish their projects. Plants have to be built within five years. Schiele insisted that the commission is happy with the level of interest in the auction and the design it chose. The UK opted for a different path with a contracts-for-difference (CfD) mechanism that involved negotiations between the government and the developers to agree on subsidy levels, but entering into negotiations would have been a more complex and potentially more costly approach , Schiele said. Subsidy levels increased during the UK's negotiation process and could eventually amount to around £12/kg (€14/kg), partly depending on the development of natural gas prices, she added. The EU may yet switch to a CfD approach at a later stage when the industry matures, Schiele said . The UK government argued that its mechanism provides greater investment certainty and could unlock a pipeline of subsequent projects . Round two The commission expects to launch a second, larger hydrogen bank auction later this year, at around the same time as the pilot auction last year, Schiele said. The bidding window for the pilot auction opened in December 2023 and bids closed in February. The second auction will have a budget of around €2.2bn and will take learnings from the first round into account. A launch towards the end of the year would mark a significant delay from previous plans. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen had said that the second round could take place in spring 2024 . Meanwhile, Belgium is considering putting forward some of its own funds to use the hydrogen bank's "auction-as-a-service" mechanism in support of domestic renewable hydrogen projects, the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition's impact director Francois Paquet said at the Amsterdam conference. Germany used that option for the pilot auction, putting in €350mn to subsidise the most competitive German projects that miss out on support in the EU-wide part of the auction. And Austria has already announced plans to top up the second round with €400mn to support domestic projects. For Belgium, the hydrogen bank could provide a route for pushing projects forward, many of which have fallen behind schedule . The Renewable Hydrogen Coalition is trying to convince more governments across the EU to make use of the auction-as-a-service mechanism, Paquet said. It is intended to avoid market fragmentation caused by EU countries using different subsidy mechanisms. France, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy have organised or announced mechanisms for subsidising production projects outside of the hydrogen bank scheme. By Stefan Krumpelmann Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Japanese firms to start ammonia bunkering in May
Japanese firms to start ammonia bunkering in May
Osaka, 10 April (Argus) — A Japanese cross-industry group has moved forward with an ammonia bunkering project for a tugboat, with the first fuelling scheduled at Yokohama port in late May. The group, which includes power producer Jera, shipping firm NYK Line and its subsidiary Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha, ammonia producer Resonac and engineering firm Tokyo Power Technology, has jointly studied the possible setting up of ammonia bunkering for a tugboat since December 2023. Jera is to buy an unspecified type of ammonia from Resonac through Tokyo Power Technology and supply it to NYK and Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha. Jera said on 10 April it will supply the marine ammonia to NYK in late May to fuel the NYK-owned tugboat A-Tug , which will be in service at Yokohama port. The ammonia will be transported by a tanker truck and supplied by truck-to-ship operations. A-Tug is scheduled to be officially commissioned in June. Jera after starting normal operations plans to supply the marine ammonia to Shin-Nippon Kaiyosha, which will be in charge of operating the tugboat. The planned ammonia consumption of the tugboat was undisclosed, although the bunkering is scheduled to be done twice a month. Jera has geared up efforts to utilise fuel ammonia for power generation to substitute it for coal. Demonstration of co-firing ammonia and coal at its 1GW Hekinan No.4 coal-fired genereation unit achieved a 20pc mixture on 10 April after the test burning began on 1 April, it said. By Motoko Hasegawa Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Indonesia’s geothermal power offers H2 opportunities
Indonesia’s geothermal power offers H2 opportunities
Steady power supply from Indonesia's abundant geothermal resources could yield impressively low levelised hydrogen production costs, writes Akansha Victor Mumbai, 9 April (Argus) — Indonesia has high hopes for turning stable power supply from geothermal energy into hydrogen, although capacity expansions could prove challenging and widespread hydrogen adoption might need more policy thrust. With its prodigious volcanic activity, Indonesia is keen to leverage geothermal energy, state-owned energy firm Pertamina Geothermal Energy's (PGE) director, Julfi Hadi, said at a webinar organised by media outlet DE TV last week. The country already has the world's second-largest geothermal capacity, at around 2.4GW, trailing only the US. PGE is planning to add another 1GW in the next two years, some of which will be used for hydrogen production, especially in West Java, North Sumatra and North Sulawesi, Hadi said. Geothermal energy provides a constant power supply, unlike intermittent solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind resources. This means that electrolysis plants can achieve much higher load factors — something that should push down levelised costs of hydrogen production. PGE is planning to start small, however. A pilot project in Ulubelu will initially produce just over 100 kg/d, or less than 40 t/yr, from 300kW of geothermal power. PGE has launched a tender for engineering, procurement and construction services and has brought carmaker Toyota on board as an offtaker for the hydrogen. In the future, PGE hopes to produce as much as 110,000 t/yr from geothermal energy, Hadi said. But future prospects will depend on the extent to which PGE or other companies can navigate challenges around expanding capacity. Indonesia's geothermal potential stands at over 23GW, so it is currently utilising just over 10pc of this, Hadi said. By 2035, installed capacity could climb above 9GW, he added, but this would still be less than half the country's overall potential. Exploration risks and limited access to funding for developers could make it difficult to build out the capacity more quickly, Hadi noted. Most of the geothermal potential is in remote mountainous areas with limited connectivity to major cities, Hadi noted. This could make delivering geothermal power — and potentially the molecules made from it — difficult and costly. Fuelling development More fundamentally, future hydrogen production from geothermal power will also depend on the adoption of renewable hydrogen as a fuel or feedstock. At last week's webinar, industry participants urged more decisive government support for the sector. In its hydrogen strategy from last year , Jakarta outlined possible mechanisms to make clean hydrogen more competitive, such as expanding its carbon market, but it has made no firm commitments yet. The government needs to provide "friendly" policies for hydrogen investments and should resolve "regulatory and licensing obstacles", state-owned firm PLN Indonesia Power's vice-president of asset management, Dwi Handoyo, said. PLN already produces small amounts of renewable hydrogen, primarily for cooling power generators. Going forward, it aims to use renewable hydrogen and ammonia for co-firing at its gas-fired power plants (see table). It has also signed a deal to supply renewable hydrogen to state-owned fertiliser firm Pupuk Indonesia and has an agreement for 100,000 t/yr of exports to Singapore with energy firm Sembcorp. Hadi also called for support measures, such as corporate tax relief or grants, or the transfer of subsidies from fossil fuel projects to renewable hydrogen ventures. Road transport could be an early use case for renewable hydrogen and PLN opened Indonesia's first renewable hydrogen refuelling station in February . But Jakarta needs to encourage uptake of fuel cell vehicles to spur on the industry, PT Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia's director, Koko Widjanarko, said. PLN co-firing pilots Province Co-firing plan* Jakarta 5,800 t/yr hydrogen South Sumatra 3,000 t/yr ammonia East Java 7,700 t/yr ammonia Bali 300 t/yr hydrogen *volumes would amount to 20pc co-firing in each of the plants - PLN Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2024. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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