Shell and RWE to collaborate on green hydrogen projects

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was recently signed by Markus Krebber, Chief Executive Officer of RWE, and Wael Sawan, Director of Integrated Gas, Renewables and Energy Solutions at Shell, at the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland near Cologne, Germany. The aim of the MoU is to identify concrete project options which could then be developed toward investment decisions.

Hydrogen is crucial for the decarbonisation of industry and achieving climate neutrality in large-scale production and processing. Many companies can only achieve climate goals through the use of hydrogen produced without CO₂ emissions. Accordingly, the demand for green and blue hydrogen is increasing, and the two companies want to focus their co-operation on this potential.

RWE and Shell already have a background of positive co-operation through the projects NortH2 in the Netherlands and AquaVentus in Germany. In a next step, integrated projects for the production of green hydrogen, using offshore wind power on a GW-scale, will also be examined in the industrial regions in the north-east of England (such as Teesside and/or Humberside). The companies intend to jointly assess the future development of electrolysis plants to produce green hydrogen and consider locations which have potential pipeline capacity for hydrogen, yet are currently difficult to connect to the electric grid. RWE and Shell want to investigate whether, and how, green energy can be transported from such locations to customers via hydrogen pipelines.

The companies also want to develop new green hydrogen solutions for industrial customers, focused on the Shell Energy & Chemicals Park Rheinland in Germany, Shell sites in Rotterdam and Moerdijk in the Netherlands, and on customers in their immediate vicinity.

In addition, the partnership intends to evaluate the possible application of green hydrogen in the mobility sector in Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. A starting point for this could be, for example, the hydrogen station network for heavy trucks which Shell plans to build between Rotterdam, Cologne and Hamburg, Germany, by 2024.

In the MoU, the two companies also agreed to examine technical alternatives for the decarbonisation of RWE’s gas and biomass power plants, such as the possibility of capturing and storing CO₂. The companies will also examine the use of blue hydrogen in RWE's gas-fired power plants in Pembroke (Wales), Emsland (Germany) and Moerdijk (the Netherlands), among others. If progressed, Shell would produce and supply the hydrogen as well as capture and store the CO₂. The results of the trial could be transferred later to other RWE sites, in parallel with the developing transport infrastructure for hydrogen and CO₂.

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