H&R opens PtL plant in Hamburg
Power-to-Liquid demonstration plant goes into operation in Germany.

H&R inaugurated the new Power-to-Liquid (PtL) demonstration plant at the production site of Ölwerke Schindler GmbH.
The process facilities will be used to produce synthesis-based alternatives to fossil raw materials. The demonstration project is one of the world’s first PtL concepts on a technical scale, supplying so-called eFuels as well as synthetic raw waxes, which will be marketed via the P2X-Europe joint venture of the two partner companies Mabanaft and H&R.
The Power-to-Liquid synthesis technology, developed by Karlsruhe-based technology company INERATEC, will produce around 200 tons of eFuels for road, rail transport and around 150 tons of eWaxes for use in the cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and food industries.
The plant is integrated into the network of Norddeutsches Reallabor (NRL), in which 50 partners from different production and consumption sectors are jointly testing new ways to achieve climate neutrality as part of an energy transition alliance.
With the official inauguration of the plant, the NextGate project partners are completing an important part of the commissioning phase, in which all essential systems have already been ramped up and the first batches of synthetic hydrocarbons have been produced.
In the coming years, building on the volumes from the NextGate demonstration project, H&R and Mabanaft will enable the market ramp-up by increasing production volumes to a commercial scale through projects of the joint venture company P2X-Europe.
Detlev Woesten, Co-CEO of P2X-Europe, said, “For more than 10 years, we have been working on exploiting the potential of green hydrogen and climate-friendly base materials produced from it, and we are proud to set a milestone in the production and marketing of chemical-pharmaceutical specialties and eFuels from renewable resources together with Mabanaft.”
Volker Ebeling, Senior Vice President at Mabanaft, said, “With the help of the PtL technology, we can offer synthetic fuels in the form of CO2-neutral eFuels to air, marine and rail transport and thus make a significant contribution to the defossilization of these sectors.”
Dr. Thorsten Frick, Director of Transformation at H&R, said, “In the near future, we will produce eFuels and synthetic raw materials and refine them to specification-compliant end products and base materials for chemical-pharmaceutical products.”
Dr. Peter Tschentscher, First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, said, “The power-to-liquid demonstration plant by H&R and Mabanaft is an important project for climate protection and the energy transition in Germany.”