POWER May 2022 - 25

HYDROGEN
other industries.
A European consortium consisting of
2. With a 50-MW capacity, the power system
built at the Daesan Industrial Complex in
Seosan, South Korea, is the world's largest
industrial hydrogen-fuel-cell power plant and
the first to use only hydrogen recycled from
petrochemical manufacturing. Courtesy:
Hanwha Energy
Oman since 2019. The region benefits
from very high and stable levels of both
solar and wind energy, which exhibit the
optimal diurnal profile of strong wind at
night and reliable sun during the day. The
project is also located near the coast,
which allows adequate seawater intake
for electrolysis and suitable infrastructure
for shipping purposes (Figure 1). OQ
said given the site's strategic location
between Europe and Asia, the project
is well-positioned " to offer a secure and
reliable supply of green fuels globally at
a highly competitive price. "
Oil and gas (O&G) supermajor BP is
also a partner with Oman in the project.
The company signed an agreement in
January with the Ministry of Energy and
Minerals, which will have the company
capture and evaluate solar and wind data
from 8,000 square kilometers (roughly
2,000,000 acres) of land, an area about
two and a half times the size of Rhode
Island. The evaluation will support the
government of Oman in approving future
developments of renewable energy hubs
at suitable locations within this area to
take advantage of these resources.
Diversifying Operations
Other O&G supermajors also see hydrogen
as an opportunity. Last summer,
Shell started up Europe's largest PEM
(polymer electrolyte membrane) green
hydrogen electrolyzer at its Energy and
Chemicals Park Rheinland site near Cologne,
Germany. PEM electrolyzers are
more compact than a conventional alkaline
electrolyzer. They are also well-suited
to working with renewable energy sources
because they can operate dynamically
using varying loads of electricity.
While minuscule compared to the size
of the GEO project, the 10-MW Rheinland
electrolyser will use renewable electricity
to produce up to 1,300 tonnes of
green hydrogen a year. This will initially
be used to produce fuels with lower carbon
intensity. Shell said the green hydrogen
will also be used to help decarbonize
May 2022 | POWER
Shell, ITM Power, research organization
SINTEF, and consultants Sphera and Element
Energy backed the project. The
electrolyzer was manufactured by ITM
Power in Sheffield, UK, and includes
parts made in Italy, Sweden, Spain, and
Germany. Plans are already underway to
expand electrolyzer capacity at the site to
100 MW. In the future, Shell also intends
to produce sustainable aviation fuel using
renewable power and biomass. A
plant for liquefied renewable natural gas
(bio-LNG) is also in development.
Shell is involved in a lengthy list of other
projects around the world too. In late
January, the company began operation of
a 20-MW power-to-hydrogen electrolyzer
in Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, China.
The project is part of a joint venture between
Shell China and Zhangjiakou City
Transport Construction Investment Holding
Group Co. Ltd. The electrolyzer and
hydrogen refueling stations in Zhangjiakou
are Phase 1 of the joint venture. The
companies have plans to scale up to 60
MW in the next two years in Phase 2.
The project-Shell's first commercial
hydrogen development project in China-was
completed in only 13 months.
It utilizes onshore wind power and was
initially used to supply green hydrogen
to fuel a fleet of more than 600 fuel cell
vehicles at the Zhangjiakou competition
zone during the Winter Olympic Games.
Now, the hydrogen is being used for
public and commercial transport in the
Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, helping to
decarbonize its mobility sector.
Innovative Hydrogen Fuel Cell
Power Plant
Hanwha Energy, a comprehensive energy-solutions
company based in Seoul,
South Korea, has been on the hydrogen
bandwagon for a while. In 2020, the
company commissioned the largest industrial
hydrogen-fuel-cell power plant in
the world, which was also the first to use
only hydrogen recycled from petrochemical
manufacturing. The 50-MW plant is
located at the Daesan Industrial Complex
in Seosan, South Korea (Figure 2).
To facilitate completion of the project,
Hanwha Energy partnered with Korea
East-West Power and Doosan Corp. to
establish Daesan Green Energy, a special-purpose
company. Hanwha Energy is
the largest shareholder and responsible
for the power plant's day-to-day operations.
Korea East-West Power purchases
the renewable energy certificates prowww.powermag.com
duced
by the hydrogen-fuel-cell power
plant, while Doosan Corp. supplies and
maintains the hydrogen fuel cells.
The hydrogen used in the plant is supplied
by the Hanwha Total Petrochemical
plant located within the same Daesan
Industrial Complex. Hanwha Total Petrochemical
pumps the recycled hydrogen
into the power plant via underground
pipes and feeds it directly into the fuel
cells. Electricity is then generated by an
electrochemical reaction between hydrogen
and oxygen. Pure water is the only
byproduct of the fuel cells.
100% Hydrogen-Fueled Reciprocating
Engines
Hyosung Heavy Industries announced in
November 2021 that it would undertake
a project that will also run on hydrogen
produced as a byproduct at a chemical
plant. In this case, however, the hydrogen
will be used to fuel an INNIO Jenbacher
engine. The company says the
pilot hydrogen power plant, which will be
built at the Hyosung Chemical Yongyeon
Plant in Ulsan, South Korea, will be " the
second power plant in the 1-MW range
that can be fueled with 100% hydrogen. "
The first was completed in 2020. INNIO
and HanseWerk Natur partnered
on that project, which converted a combined
heat and power (CHP) plant in the
Othmarschen area of Hamburg, Germany,
and involved field testing using variable
hydrogen and natural gas mixtures
up to 100% hydrogen. The converted
CHP plant provides local heating for 30
residential buildings, a sports center, a
daycare center, and the Othmarschen
Park leisure complex. The electricity generated
by the plant feeds electric vehicle
charging points in Othmarschen's multilevel
parking garage, as well as to the
local power grid. INNIO said that projects
like these are " a key milestone on
the path toward climate neutrality since
green hydrogen is an important part of
the solution. "
" A particularly attractive aspect of our
gas engine technology is that existing
natural gas engines can also be converted
to run on hydrogen. This offers
operators security of investment, with
the added benefit that the existing infrastructure
can not only be utilized in the
longer term, but also deployed in a way
that is environmentally sound, " Carlos
Lange, president and CEO of INNIO, said
in a statement when field testing began
on the project in late 2020. ■
-Aaron Larson is POWER's
executive editor.
25
http://www.powermag.com
POWER May 2022

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