Clean hydrogen production

Energy company Uniper and the Port of Rotterdam Authority have signed an MoU for developing the production of green hydrogen at the Uniper location on Maasvlakte. These plans build on the findings of a recent feasibility study.

Allard Castelein, CEO of the Port of Rotterdam Authority, said: “We are working with partners towards the introduction of a large-scale hydrogen network across the port complex, making Rotterdam an international hub for hydrogen production and import and for the transit of hydrogen to other countries in Northwestern Europe. This explains why initiatives like this Uniper project are so important for the future of Rotterdam and the Netherlands.”

Positive feasibility study

The recently completed joint feasibility study shows that the Uniper location on Maasvlakte is ideally suitable for large-scale production of green hydrogen with the use of power generated by North Sea wind farms. The Uniper hydrogen plant is to be connected to the HyTransport.RTM pipeline that runs through the Port of Rotterdam. The pipeline also connects the Uniper plant to the national hydrogen infrastructure and the Delta Corridor pipeline bundle. The latter project is intended for delivering hydrogen to chemical clusters in Moerdijk and Geleen (Chemelot) and farther away in North Rhine-Westphalia.

The next key step in the Uniper project is the FEED (front-end engineering & design) study. This nine-month study is currently being contracted out and should yield in-depth findings for the conceptual design of the electrolysis installation (100MW initially and with a future capacity increase to 500MW), the project planning, and a realistic budget.

Soon, the first efforts will be made to apply for the permits needed, to seek (financial) support from various authorities, to enter into agreements with the relevant partners involved in the value chain, and to prepare an investment decision in 2022.

Today, about 13% of the European energy supply enters the European Union via Rotterdam. The port has the ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050. By then, the port authority anticipates approximately 20m tonnes of hydrogen will flow through the port to consumers in the Netherlands and beyond.