VIDEO: North Sea gas platform set for green hydrogen pilot

Written by Nick Blenkey
offshore gas platform

Gas platform wil use electricity generated by offshore wind to create green hydrogen from water, [Image: Neptune Energy]

Can offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore green hydrogen production all play nicely together? That’s the hope of an interesting project now getting started in the Netherlands. A working Dutch North Sea gas production platform, installed in 2013, is set to become the world’s first offshore green hydrogen production plant.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has awarded a EUR 3.6 million subsidy to the PosHYdon project, which will be hosted on the Neptune Energy-operated Q13a-A platform and which aims to validate the integration of offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore hydrogen.

It will see the installation of a green hydrogen-producing plant on the Q13a-A platform. The plant will convert seawater into demineralized water, then into green hydrogen via electrolysis, which will be blended with natural gas and transported to shore via an existing pipeline.

NEW LIFE FOR OLD PLATFORMS?

Leading partners in the project are Netherlands research agency TNO, Neptune Energy, and NextStep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and reuse of offshore oil and gas production platforms. Many North Sea platforms that have reached the end of their lifespan and numerous gas pipelines could have a potential second life should the PosHYdon project validate the concepts it is piloting,

“The Dutch North Sea sector has an exciting future as a ‘new energy hub’ and can play a leading role in large-scale green hydrogen production for north western Europe, given its infrastructure that connects offshore with onshore. The integration of energy systems supports net zero goals in a smart, efficient, and cost-effective manner and without disturbing existing sea ecosystems,” says Neptune Energy’s Managing Director for the Netherlands, Lex de Groot. “The extensive infrastructure network is connected to international grids and can easily accommodate wind farms further out at sea by converting the production of green electricity into green hydrogen and transporting it to the grid onshore. PosHYdon will be the key to making this happen and we are excited to consider future opportunities that the pilot can help unlock.”

More from TNO HERE and in the video below.

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