Air Liquide to add 30 MW electrolysis capacity in Germany

Air Liquide plans to build a renewable hydrogen production plant using electrolysis in Oberhausen, Germany.

In the first phase, the project is expected to be operational by early 2023, with 20 MW producing renewable hydrogen and renewable oxygen. In the second phase, Air Liquide has planned to increase the plant capacity to 30MW.

The new Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyser will produce renewable hydrogen using water and renewable electricity. The technological solution for the project is being developed in the framework of the previously announced partnership between Air Liquide and Siemens Energy, the first electrolyser to be built under the partnership.

The electrolyser will be integrated into the existing local hydrogen and oxygen pipeline infrastructure of Air Liquide to key industries and mobility with renewable hydrogen locally. The network has already connected around 15 large industrial sites. This will support sectors such as steel, chemicals, refining and mobility in North Rhine-Westphalia by accelerating the availability of gases produced with renewable electricity for their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

To expedite the works on the project, the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy has granted public funding.

Elisabeth Winkelmeier-Becker, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics, said, “The project is a strong signal for the positioning of the Rhine-Ruhr region in the hydrogen sector.”

François Jackow, Executive VP, said, “Leveraging on Air Liquide’s existing hydrogen pipeline network, the renewable hydrogen produced will accelerate the decarbonisation of the Rhine-Ruhr industrial basin and it will foster clean mobility in a densely populated region.”