By: Editorial Team
Reading time: 3 Minutes
◤ SUSTAINABILITY
Bundled expertise for climate neutrality
Decarbonization – the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable, climate-neutral energy carriers – plays a key role in the battle against global climate change.
In April, Siemens Energy and Messer signed an agreement to work together toward that goal: the two companies will collaborate on green hydrogen projects in the 5-to-50-megawatt (MW) range for industrial and mobility applications. Three projects will install a total electrolyzer capacity of 70 megawatts in the Tarragona chemical complex in Spain and have already been submitted to the Spanish government.
Making green hydrogen economically attractive
Messer is concentrating on the particularly economical operation of plants to recover green hydrogen, because it is still significantly more expensive to produce than gray hydrogen. “The key is the optimized application of electrolysis,” says Tim Evison, who as Senior Vice President at Messer is responsible for green hydrogen. “Siemens Energy offers modular and extremely efficient electrolyzers along with system solutions for hydrogen applications, which we are custom-fitting into existing processes within the framework of our ‘on-site concept’. Manufacturing green hydrogen generates byproducts such as oxygen and heat, which we offer to the local market, thereby further optimizing the cost of green hydrogen.” This option is particularly attractive to companies that Messer already supplies with oxygen via pipeline, such as in the Tarragona chemical complex.
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The key is the optimized application of electrolysis.
Tim Evison, Senior Vice President Clean Hydrogen at Messer
Because green hydrogen makes renewable energy sources useful also in sectors that cannot be electrified, it counteracts climate change rather than exacerbating the problem the way gray hydrogen does. In this way, other factors attenuate the added cost of its production, as Tim Evison explains: “CO₂ emissions will become more and more expensive in the future, while prices for renewable energy, such as electricity produced from solar and wind power plants, are certain to continue falling. The costs of electrolysis units are also falling due to scaling and learning effects, while the green hydrogen gains market share. Moreover, investments in projects associated with the European Green Deal are being heavily subsidized.”
Extensive experience in the use of hydrogen
Along with economic benefits, companies interested in the production and use of green hydrogen also benefit from Messer’s extensive experience. “We are very familiar with the safe manufacture of hydrogen, the associated quality assurance, the filling technology, the logistics, and both the conventional and the emerging applications,” emphasizes Dr. Christoph Erdmann, Vice President Messer Group. “In addition, we have established an extremely efficient worldwide gases distribution network – also in the chemical industry – and implement application engineering improvements in our technical centers the world over.” Examples of this include the development of burners for industrial furnaces that can also burn hydrogen, as well as filling station technology, which is developed together with partner firms and tailored to the needs of the customer. In sum, Messer’s commitment and close partnerships are helping to establish green hydrogen as an eco-friendly energy carrier, and thereby, actively contributing to climate neutrality.