LNG terminal scrapped for green hydrogen

Uniper plans to establish a German national hub for hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven and is working on a corresponding feasibility study. The company was previously planning an LNG Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) at the port, however, in November, Uniper said a market test showed there wasn’t enough interest in the LNG sector and it was considering focusing on hydrogen.

David Bryson, COO Uniper, said: “We need to get hydrogen out of the laboratory and start using it in large-scale applications and marketable industrial solutions — we should make it into a commodity and exploit its wide variety of uses. One way of achieving this is to import green ammonia and convert it into hydrogen, which is something we are looking at for Wilhelmshaven.”

Ammonia to hydrogen

An import terminal for green ammonia is planned under the ‘Green Wilhelmshaven’ project. The terminal is planned to be equipped with an “ammonia cracker” for producing green hydrogen and will also be connected to the planned hydrogen network. A 410-megawatt electrolysis plant is also planned, which – in combination with the import terminal – would be capable of supplying around 295,000 metric tons or 10% of the demand expected for the whole of Germany in 2030. The generated climate friendly hydrogen will primarily be used to supply local industry, but it will also be possible to feed it into the national hydrogen network. This approach will help to solve one of the key problems of energy transition: security of supply. The NH3 splitting plant for producing green hydrogen would be the first scaled plant of its kind.

Commissioning of the new terminal is planned for the second half of this decade, depending on national import demand and export opportunities.

Direct reduction plant exploration

Uniper is also working with its partners on a project to ascertain whether it would be feasible to build a direct reduction plant with upstream hydrogen electrolysis on the site of the existing power plant in Wilhelmshaven, as well as the required infrastructure for supplying raw materials. The aim is to produce “green” crude iron using hydrogen generated via wind power. Uniper is working with Salzgitter and Rhenus Logistics, the city of Wilhelmshaven and the state of Lower Saxony on this project.