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.

By Aidan Lea