Shell and Uniper form green hydrogen pact

Shell Gas & Power Developments B.V. and Uniper Hydrogen GmbH have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore accelerating the development of a hydrogen economy in Europe.

Under the MoU, the companies intend to find joint opportunities to couple industrial and mobility demand with hydrogen supply, production, and storage.

Shell and Uniper will begin by assessing the opportunity to develop potential synergies to accelerate existing projects in Germany, the Netherlands, and potentially other European countries. Taking a full value chain approach, Shell and Uniper will work backwards from customer demand to identify key opportunities to develop the foundation of a new hydrogen economy in Europe.

”Our mission is to connect Uniper’s large scale hydrogen projects – e.g. in the Netherlands and in Northern Germany – with industrial customers to enable a decarbonisation of our economy,” said Dr. Axel Wietfeld, CEO, Uniper Hydrogen.

”By way of hydrogen Uniper provides a CO2-free solution of how to transport the abundant renewable electricity from coastal regions and from offshore wind farms to the inland.”

Exploring future options including the necessary infrastructure for large scale transport of hydrogen and CO2 from the ports of Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to North Rhine Westphalia (NRW) – the industrial heartland of Germany – will be at the centre of the announced collaboration.

Among the projects considered will be Shell’s Rheinland transformation where Shell recently opened a 10 MW PEM electrolyser, the largest of its kind in Europe, and is working with partners to expand the capacity to 100 MW.

Uniper will further explore the supply of hydrogen from the existing Uniper production sites at Rotterdam and Wilhelmshaven to the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland locations at Wesseling and Godorf. In addition, Uniper intends to connect its power plant in Gelsenkirchen Scholven as well as some large-scale customers with its coastal hydrogen production plants.