Uniper, Port of Rotterdam Authority to cooperate on green hydrogen production

Uniper, an energy company, and the Port of Rotterdam Authority agreed to develop a green hydrogen facility at the Uniper location on Maasvlakte, the Netherlands.

The plan is based on the recently completed joint feasibility study which shows that the Uniper location on Maasvlakte is ideal for large-scale green hydrogen using power generated by North Sea wind farms.

The next key step is the Feed (front-end engineering & design) the study which is a nine-month study currently being contracted out and should yield in-depth findings for the conceptual design of the electrolysis installation of the project planning, and a realistic budget. With the help of these findings, the first phase of this unique electrolysis plant can be outsourced to a number of specialist suppliers and contractors.  The electrolysis capacity would be 100 MW which would be ramped up to 500 MW in the future.

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.

The project is also in line with the new planned hydrogen infrastructure and the growing demand for sustainable hydrogen from the Rotterdam petrochemical industry. It is a major milestone in the further development of the hydrogen value chain in the Rijnmond region and is also on the Dutch IPCEI shortlist.

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.