First electrolyser modules for RWE’s pilot hydrogen plant arrive in Lingen

Energy company RWE has announced that its pilot hydrogen plant project in Lingen, Germany, has reached a new milestone with the arrival of the first electrolyser modules for generating hydrogen at the construction site at the Emsland gas-fired power station.

RWE said that eight pressurised alkaline electrolyser modules, manufactured by Sunfire, with a capacity of 10 megawatts (MW), arrived at the site on articulated lorries. Then, a gantry crane on rails lifted the components into place in a specially erected hall where they will be combined in groups of four to create stacks almost ten metres high.

In the coming weeks, engineers will install the 10 MW pressurised alkaline facility within the pilot plant and integrate it into the infrastructure at the Emsland gas-fired power station, RWE noted, adding that a Linde PEM electrolyser with a capacity of 4 MW will be delivered to an adjacent building in the near future to complete the pilot plant.

The facility is expected to go into operation this autumn, and according to RWE, it will be able to generate up to 290 kilograms (kg) of green hydrogen every hour. The company said that the hydrogen will be fed into a public hydrogen network or be mixed with gas as a climate-neutral fuel for turbines at the power plant, and in the future, it could also be used to supply the mobility market and the hydrogen-ready gas turbine being planned for construction in Lingen by RWE and Kawasaki.

To note, the German state of Lower Saxony is providing €8 million of funding for the project.

Sopna Sury, COO of Hydrogen RWE Generation, commented: “Following months of preliminary work, it is exciting for everyone to see the pilot plant taking shape. With the arrival of the first electrolyser, we have come another step closer to our goal of producing green hydrogen. Once it has been commissioned, the Lingen plant will help us to build up experience with two technologies for the subsequent operation of large-scale electrolysers.”

RWE pointed out that the Lingen location plays a key role in its hydrogen strategy. Just a few metres from the pilot hydrogen plant, the company plans to set up its first large-scale electrolyser facility as part of the GET H2 project.