Shell and Uniper join forces to drive development of hydrogen economy in Europe
Exploring future options including the necessary infrastructure for large scale transport of hydrogen and CO2 will be at the centre of the announced collaboration
Shell Gas & Power Developments B.V. (“Shell”) and Uniper Hydrogen GmbH (“Uniper”) have signed a memorandum of understanding (“MoU”) to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe. Under the MoU they intend to find joint opportunities to couple industrial and mobility demand with hydrogen supply, production and storage.
The companies will begin by assessing the opportunity to develop potential synergies to accelerate existing projects in Germany, the Netherlands and potentially other European countries. Taking a full value chain approach Shell and Uniper will work backwards from customer demand to identify key opportunities to develop the foundation of a new hydrogen economy in Europe.
“We’re excited to be working with Uniper to explore the opportunities to help deliver the required infrastructure to make a hydrogen economy a reality,” said Paul Bogers, VP Shell Hydrogen. “Collaborations like this one are necessary to accelerate the transition to hydrogen usage in both transport and industry and Shell is excited to be playing our part in driving this change.”
”Our mission is to connect Uniper’s large scale hydrogen projects – e.g. in the Netherlands and in Northern Germany – with industrial customers to enable a decarbonisation of our economy”, said Dr. Axel Wietfeld, CEO, Uniper Hydrogen. “By way of hydrogen Uniper provides a CO2-free solution of how to transport the abundant renewable electricity from coastal regions and from offshore wind farms to the inland”.
Exploring future options including the necessary infrastructure for large scale transport of hydrogen and CO2 from the ports of Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) – the industrial heartland of Germany – will be at the centre of the announced collaboration.
Among the projects considered will be Shell’s Rheinland transformation where work is ongoing to transform an existing refining asset into a state-of-the-art energy and chemicals park; Shell officially opened a 10MW PEM electrolyser, the largest of its kind in Europe,on July 2nd and are working with partners to expand the capacity to 100MW.
Uniper will further explore the supply of hydrogen from the existing Uniper production sites at Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinlandlocations at Wesseling and Godorf. In addition, Uniper intends to connect its power plant in Gelsenkirchen Scholven as well as some large-scale customers with its coastal hydrogen production plants.
The MoU reflects Shell’s Powering Progress strategy and target to reach net zero emissions by 2050, in step with society, and will support Uniper’s ambition to become carbon-neutral in Europe by 2035.
Source: Uniper, press release, 2021-07-06.