Berlin increasingly receptive to CCS: Wintershall Dea

The German government is increasingly open to hydrogen production from natural gas using carbon capture and storage (CCS), which could help remove hurdles for planned projects, upstream firm Wintershall Dea has said.

Wintershall Dea is observing "movement within the government" because of "a growing understanding that carbon capture, transport and storage is a very affordable and secure decarbonisation method," the firm's senior vice president for carbon management and hydrogen Klaus Langemann said during a webinar hosted by gas industry association Zukunft Gas.

Germany has been sceptical of this 'blue' hydrogen, and has highlighted its higher carbon footprint than the 'green' hydrogen produced from renewable energy. Berlin has not planned subsidies for the former but has for the latter, although it said in March that blue hydrogen will have a role to play until large-scale supply of renewable hydrogen is available.

Langemann said there is an increased willingness to enter into discussions around CCS related to hydrogen production, which could help remove regulatory hurdles for Wintershall Dea's BlueHyNow project that plans to produce 5.6 TWh/yr of hydrogen for industrial consumers by 2030 at a site in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany. The hydrogen is to be produced from natural gas delivered from Norway, where Wintershall Dea holds stakes in multiple gas fields. The CO2 separated off during the production process will be shipped for storage at offshore locations in Norway and Denmark.

But regulatory changes will be required to enable the export of CO2 from Germany, Langemann said. The 1996 London Protocol, which prevents marine pollution, would have to be amended because it prohibits CO2 transfer across borders. A change to this was agreed in 2009 to allow cross-border transport for storage under the seabed, but this amendment has yet to be ratified. Such a move requires a two-thirds majority among contracting parties.

Additionally, transportation of CO2 produced in Germany for storage in Norway will require a bilateral agreement between those countries.

By Stefan Krümpelmann