Gasunie joins green hydrogen project

[Mark]

Gasunie joins green hydrogen project:
https://www.h2-view.com/story/gasunie-j ... n-project/

Gasunie is joining Neptune Energy as a partner in the pioneering pilot project PosHYdon that aims create the first offshore hydrogen plant in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. A megawatt electrolyser will be placed within a sea container and installed on Neptune’s Q13a platform, located near the Dutch coast, 13 kilometres from Scheveningen. The platform is well suited for the groundbreaking project; as the first fully electrified offshore oil platform in the Dutch North Sea, it saves approximately 16.5 kilotonnes of CO2 per year. The hydrogen produced by the electrolyser on the Q13a platform will be transported via an existing pipeline to an offshore structure where it will be used to generate electricity.

Gasunie, which manages and maintains infrastructure for large-scale transport and storage of gases in the Netherlands and northern Germany, is the latest to join the PosHYdon consortium following NOGAT and Noordgastransport, both owners of large gas transport pipelines in the North Sea. Lex de Groot, Managing Director of Neptune Energy in the Netherlands, said, “Gasunie is already working hard to accelerate the energy transition, including several hydrogen pilots on land, and have the necessary knowledge and experience with electrolysis in-house.� “Now these two worlds onshore and offshore are literally connected in terms of infrastructure.� “The pipelines and infrastructure at sea of ​​NOGAT and Noordgastransport are already suitable for hydrogen and that is good news as offshore production will continue to be crucial to meet Dutch energy demand.�

“The Netherlands is in a special position as, in addition to an extensive gas infrastructure network, we can harvest large amounts of wind energy in the North Sea, quantities that are also important internationally.� “The wind energy can be used to generate hydrogen, then transport onshore along with natural gas via the existing large pipelines of NOGAT and Noordgastransport for customers in industry, the transport sector and for Dutch homes. PosHYdon is key to accelerating this.� Han Fennema, CEO of N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, added, “The Netherlands is in a strong position to lead the transition to a hydrogen economy.� “We have the North Sea for the production of wind and gas, the ports as logistics hubs, the industrial clusters that want to switch to green molecules and excellent infrastructure for transport and storage.� “This comes together nicely in the Netherlands. If we want to achieve our climate ambitions, we must have a large-scale hydrogen infrastructure in good time. This pilot project can be an important step in the right direction.� The PosHYdon pilot is an initiative of Nexstep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and reuse, and TNO, the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research, in close collaboration with the industry.

Electricity generated by offshore wind turbines will be used to power the hydrogen plant on the Q13a platform, converting seawater into demineralised water, then into hydrogen via electrolysis. The aim of the pilot is to gain experience of integrating working energy systems at sea and the production of hydrogen in an offshore environment. The Q13a is the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, located approximately 13 kilometres off the coast of Scheveningen (The Hague).

[kenneal - lagger]

Wouldn't there be a problem mixing hydrogen with natural gas as they have different colorific values? When the UK went from town gas to natural gas there was a national scheme to convert appliances from one gas to the other.