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A 20 megawatt hydrogen electrolyzer described as “one of many world’s largest” has begun operations, power main Shell mentioned Friday.
Situated in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China, the electrolyzer will produce inexperienced hydrogen for gasoline cell autos getting used at Zhangjiakou’s competitors zone throughout the Winter Olympics, that are resulting from open on Feb. 4. As soon as the Video games end, industrial and public transport will use the hydrogen.
In a press release, Wael Sawan, Shell’s built-in gasoline, renewable and power options director, mentioned the electrolyzer was “the most important in our portfolio to this point.”
“We see alternatives throughout the hydrogen provide chain in China, together with its manufacturing, storage and transport,” Sawan mentioned.
The ability in China is linked to a three way partnership established in 2020 between Shell China and the Zhangjiakou Metropolis Transport Development Funding Holding Group Co. Ltd.
Hydrogen, which has a various vary of purposes and could be deployed in a variety of industries, could be produced in numerous methods. One technique consists of utilizing electrolysis, with an electrical present splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen.
If the electrical energy used on this course of comes from a renewable supply equivalent to wind or photo voltaic then some name it inexperienced or renewable hydrogen. The electrolyzer in Zhangjiakou will use onshore wind energy, Shell mentioned.
Whereas there’s pleasure in some quarters about inexperienced hydrogen’s potential, the overwhelming majority of hydrogen technology is presently based mostly on fossil fuels.
In latest occasions, some enterprise leaders have spoken of the problems they felt had been going through the rising inexperienced hydrogen sector. In Oct. 2021, for instance, the CEO of Siemens Energy advised CNBC there was “no commercial case” for it at this moment in time.
In the present day, a wide range of colours — together with brown, blue, grey and pink, to call a couple of — are used to distinguish between numerous manufacturing strategies for hydrogen.
Final December, the CEO of German power firm RWE defined to CNBC the way it was necessary to be pragmatic about shade codes.
“In the end, all hydrogen needs to be green, as a result of inexperienced hydrogen is the one gasoline which is … totally decarbonized,” Markus Krebber mentioned. Within the meantime, industries wanted to take selections to put money into new services and make them “H2 prepared.”
“In fact, there’s not sufficient inexperienced hydrogen out there within the brief time period, so that you must permit them to run it first on pure gasoline then, possibly, on all different colours [of] hydrogen … particularly blue,” he mentioned. “However the second inexperienced hydrogen is accessible, to the extent wanted, they need to change to inexperienced hydrogen.”
Blue hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced utilizing pure gasoline — a fossil gasoline — with the CO2 emissions generated throughout the course of captured and saved.
Earlier this month, it was reported that one of many solely services on the earth that makes use of carbon seize and storage know-how (CCS) to scale back the emissions of hydrogen manufacturing had been found to emit far more greenhouse gas emissions than it captures.
The Quest plant in Alberta, Canada, owned by Shell and designed to seize carbon emissions from oil sands operations and safely retailer them underground, has beforehand been touted as a “thriving instance” of how CCS is working to considerably scale back carbon emissions.
Nevertheless, an investigation by watchdog group World Witness, published last week, confirmed that whereas 5 million tons of carbon dioxide had been prevented from escaping into the ambiance on the plant since 2015, it additionally launched 7.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over the identical interval.
It means simply 48% of the plant’s carbon emissions had been captured, in accordance with the report. In response to the report, a spokesperson for Shell advised CNBC through electronic mail that World Witness’ evaluation was “merely unsuitable” and confused that the Quest facility was designed to seize round a 3rd of carbon dioxide emissions.
Shell’s Quest CCS facility opened in late 2015 and is a part of the group’s Scotford complicated, the place hydrogen is produced to be used in refining oil sands bitumen (a kind of petroleum deposit). The Quest plant doesn’t cowl the emissions for the whole facility.
“Our Quest facility was designed some years in the past as an indication challenge to show the underlying CCS idea, whereas capturing round a 3rd of CO2 emissions. It isn’t a hydrogen manufacturing facility,” the Shell spokesperson mentioned.
—CNBC’s Sam Meredith contributed to this report
