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The basics of green and renewable hydrogen
Matthieu Guesné takes you through the basics of green and renewable hydrogen in just 4 minutes.
1. What is Lhyfe’s mission and how does it contribute to the energy transition?
Lhyfe is a European player devoted to energy transition, a world pioneer in the production of green and renewable hydrogen. Lhyfe’s goal is to decarbonize transportation and industrial applications that cannot be decarbonized in any other way.
2. How does Lhyfe produce hydrogen with zero CO2 emissions?
To produce renewable green hydrogen, Lhyfe uses two natural resources – water and renewable electricity – to realize the electrolysis of water.
- The water used to produce the green hydrogen can come from the sea, groundwater, wastewater treatment plants, etc. It is purified prior to use in the hydrogen making process, and then even returned to nature when the hydrogen is “consumed” by the vehicles.
- Lhyfe’s solution is powered by natural and renewable resources, of any sort, e.g. wind, photovoltaic, hydraulic,etc.. Lhyfe’s renewable green hydrogen therefore emits no CO2, either during its production phase or in its use. It emits only the oxygen produced during the electrolysis of water.
3. What are the different sectors where hydrogen can be used, and how does Lhyfe cater to these sectors?
Lhyfe sells its reewable hydrogen to public and private players, fuel buyers and distributors, and in
particular to the following users:
TRANSPORTATION
- Communities and local authorities wishing to offer their fellow citizens transport without carbon dioxide (CO2) or nitrogen oxide (NOx), by powering their buses, refuse trucks, vehicle fleets, river shuttles, trains, etc. with renewable hydrogen. Lhyfe helps them to design and build this innovative fuel chain with the right partners.
- Transport and logistics providers who wish to green their fleets (including heavy vehicles such as trucks, utility vehicles such as forklifts, service vehicles, etc.) and significantly improve the carbon footprint of their operations by running their vehicles on renewable hydrogen.
- Fuel distributors and service stations with operations throughout France and Europe, and through them, individuals.
INDUSTRIAL APPLICATIONS
Industrial companies who use fossil fuels and emit millions of tonnes of CO2 each year. By switching to green and renewable hydrogen, they reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and meet government objectives and the expectations of their customers.
- Those already using fossil carbon-derived hydrogen in their industrial process, for example for ammonia, methanol, chemicals, etc.
- Those that use fossil fuels (gas, coal), such as for steel, glass, electronics, food manufacturing etc.
4. How does Lhyfe ensure the availability of renewable hydrogen in industrial quantities?
Today, most renewable energy sources are located onshore. Lhyfe therefore developed a solution capable of connecting to the various renewable energy sources available, to produce renewable hydrogen from existing sources. Lhyfe thus enables communities and industry to start their energy transition to renewable hydrogen today and to develop infrastructures (refuelling
stations) and uses in parallel.
But if the future of hydrogen is as promised, the existing onshore solutions will not be sufficient to produce the energy needed for hydrogen production; it will therefore be necessary to find new sources of renewable energy to meet the massive increase in needs and the objectives of the Paris Agreement, considering that:
- In Europe, offshore wind power is recognized as the most abundant, powerful and least intermittent renewable energy source of all,
- Oceans cover 80% of the earth’s surface,
- Population forecasts predict that more than 75% of the world’s population will reside within 150 km of the shoreline by 2035.
The sea therefore offers an appropriate response to the energy transformation that is needed, and offshore wind power represents an incomparable source of energy in the long term. Moreover, it is developing at high speed, especially in Northern Europe.
The production sites Lhyfe designs will be located several tens of kilometres off the coast, beyond the horizon line, but close enough for efficient transport of the hydrogen, which will be exported by pipeline.
Lhyfe plans to install its production solutions on seabed foundations or floating platforms, or on existing fixed structures such as oil platforms that will no longer be used, in a sustainable way.
The water needed for the process will be drawn from the ocean then desalinated and purified. The hydrogen produced on the platform will be transported ashore and then delivered to distribution points.
5. What is the difference between carbon-based hydrogen, low-carbon hydrogen, and renewable hydrogen?
In its pure form, hydrogen is an invisible, odourless and non-toxic gas that is lighter than air. However, this gas is not found naturally in this state as the H2 molecule is always combined with another molecule. To produce it, it must be separated from the other molecule, and it is how you do this that defines the different categories of hydrogen.
- Today, 95% of hydrogen is made from fossil fuels or “hydrocarbons” (oil, natural gas and coal), this is the “carbon-based hydrogen”. This process generates high emissions of CO2 (for 1 kg of hydrogen produced, up to 11 kg of CO2 are emitted). Producing hydrogen from fossil fuels only displaces the problem. In 2020, the consumption of fossil hydrogen amounted to more than 90 million tonnes worldwide (mainly for industry).
- The “green” alternative chosen by Lhyfe and now recommended by the French State and experts, uses the well-known technique of water electrolysis. This involves passing an electric current through water to break down the H2O water molecule into oxygen (O2) on the one hand, and hydrogen (H2) on the other.
Depending on how the production site is powered, this technique emits less CO2.
- Electricity from the grid (low-carbon hydrogen)
- Electricity from the power grid with guarantees of origin: This electricity comes from wind, solaror hydro-electric power, but is not necessarily produced locally
- Renewable energies, which guarantee the traceability and origin of generation (renewable hydrogen).
6. How does Lhyfe integrate the issue of access to water resources in its production of renewable hydrogen?
Blue gold has never been so aptly named, as access to water resources has become increasingly precious over the years.
As a producer of renewable hydrogen from water electrolysis, the issue of access to this resource has been fully integrated since the very founding of the company.
Today, to produce two tonnes of hydrogen per day, it is necessary to consume 30 m3 of water, i.e. around 10,000 m3 per year. A figure which may seem small compared with the 5.75 billion m3 withdrawn each year in France, but in relation to the world’s need for hydrogen, it represents a real challenge which we do not want and do not wish to neglect.
That’s why, taking into account the fact that water will be an essential element in supporting the decarbonization of our society through the production of green hydrogen, we are already designing solutions that will enable us to meet this important challenge.
Our first production site in Bouin has been designed to consume seawater directly, which we desalinate before using it to produce hydrogen.
For our production sites further inland, which have no access to seawater, we are working, for example, on the possibility of reusing wastewater to produce green hydrogen. As part of the Water Plan announced by the French President, the use of wastewater has been authorized in several cases. In concrete terms, for example, we are in discussions with players close to our future projects to recover water from their landfill sites. This water, once treated, will be used to supply our sites as a priority, enabling us to avoid using mains water.
Finally, Lhyfe’s vision doesn’t stop there, as we’re already designing the future of green hydrogen production, which will be at sea, where it will be possible to take advantage of more powerful wind turbines and, above all, abundant water resources. We have just commissioned the first floating platform for green hydrogen production off Le Croisic, directly connected to a floating wind turbine. This technological and human feat is the first step towards a second, larger project, this time off the coast of Belgium, with a 10 MW production unit due for commissioning in 2026.
Lhyfe’s thinking goes even further: since we produce not only hydrogen but also oxygen, our teams are already thinking about the possibility of reinjecting the oxygen produced directly into the oceans, thereby promoting their reoxygenation and combating the acidification caused by global warming.
7. Can you provide an overview of some of Lhyfe’s latest activities and projects related to renewable hydrogen production?
- In 2021, Lhyfe inaugurated the first industrial-scale green hydrogen production plant in the world to be interconnected with a wind farm. Lhyfe Pays de la Loire (Bouin) is a symbolic project for Lhyfe as it was the very first site in Europe to produce renewable hydrogen on an industrial scale, and the first in the world to produce renewable hydrogen from wind energy, on an industrial scale. It is also symbolic for its location – the site is in Port-du-Bec, at the foot of Bouin’s wind turbines and a few metres from the Atlantic Ocean, thus offering Lhyfe the ideal test conditions for offshore situations (desalinated seawater, corrosive saline environment, etc.). Since being started up in the fourth quarter of 2021, the plant has produced and delivered 300 kg of hydrogen per day. The site aims to ramp up to a volume of 1 tonne a day in order to support growth in uses.
- 6 new onshore production sites are being built across Europe (France, Germany, Sweden) and Lhyfe Pays de la Loire is being extended, and we announced other larges-scale projects in France, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands… Based on its solid business pipeline, Lhyfe aims its production capacity to reach up to 22 tons of green hydrogen per day by end 2024 and up to 80 tons per day by end 2026. In other words, the company aims to reach 55 MW of installed capacity by 2024, 200 MW by 2026 and more than 3 GW by 2030.By 2030-2035, offshore could represent an additional installed capacity of around 3 GW for Lhyfe. Lhyfe’s growth was backed by a solid business portfolio representing a total installed production capacity of 10.3 GW across Europe (data as of end of June 2023). Within this sales portfolio, projects at an advanced stage of development (i.e. in the tender phase, secured or in construction) totalise an installed capacity of 619 MW (data as of end of June 2023).
- In 2022, Lhyfe inaugurated the first offshore green hydrogen production pilot platform in the world. In May 2023, this floating platform named Sealhyfe was successfully towed 20 kilometres out into the Atlantic and connected with the SEM-REV offshore testing site’s power hub, which is already linked with a floating wine turbine (FLOATGEN, engineered and operated by BW Ideol). The platform began producing its first kilos of offshore hydrogen, marking a decisive milestone for the future of the sector. In launching the world’s first offshore hydrogen production pilot, Lhyfe wanted to prove the technical feasibility of such a project and acquire the operational experience needed to quickly scale up. The company therefore voluntarily chose to confront Sealhyfe with the toughest conditions.
- As a logical follow-up to this first stage, Lhyfe just announced that the HOPE project, which it is coordinating as part of a consortium of nine partners, has been selected by the European Commission under the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership and is being awarded a €20 million grant. With HOPE, Lhyfe and its partners are moving up a gear and aiming for commercialisation. This unprecedentedly large-scale project (10 MW) will be able to produce up to four tonnes a day of green hydrogen at sea, which will be exported ashore by pipeline, and then compressed and delivered to customers.
