Completion of a pre-feasibility study by Provaris Energy and Norwegian Hydrogen has identified a low-cost project for the export of green hydrogen from Norway to Europe using Provaris’s compressed hydrogen floating storage and carriers.
A preferred site in Norway has been identified for the development of a production facility to deliver up to 50,000 tonnes of green hydrogen to Europe, commencing in 2027, with a competitive delivered cost of hydrogen that includes a marine transport cost of EUR 1.00-1.50/kg.
The scope of the study includes site selection, renewable power supply, production of hydrogen, compression facilities, infrastructure requirements for jetty loading, Provaris’s H2Leo storage solution and a fleet of two H2Neo carriers with a carrying capacity of 26,000m3 (430 tonnes).
Germany and the Netherlands are considered key import locations for bulk-scale hydrogen and are well advanced in planning and development of the dedicated hydrogen backbone and HyPerLink project. HyPerLink is to develop an open access, cross-border hydrogen backbone in Northern Germany, and connection between large-scale intake of hydrogen and final consumers in industrial and urban centers in Northern Germany and future hydrogen storage facilities. The project will result in a large scale hydrogen network (up to 7.2 GW) with a total length of approximately 610km (380 miles).
An efficient grid system established from repurposing of existing gas storage and pipelines will allow for advantageous integration and operations with Provaris’ compressed hydrogen solution for the ports in Netherlands and Germany. On the demand side, the hydrogen backbone can reach various consumers in the Bremen, Hamburg, but also Brunsbüttel / Heide and Hanover regions. This will target direct connections to large industrial consumers (e.g. steel works, refineries).
Provaris says its compressed hydrogen export supply chain provides a flexible, low-cost solution that aligns with growth to giga-watt scale generation capacity to be transported as gaseous green hydrogen for Europe. Compression has been found to take advantage in the variability in power prices with the view that 24/7 utilisation can have a negative impact on the local grid and does not always result in a lower cost of hydrogen.
The Partners are now advancing development activities for permitting, and key agreements to support the completion of detailed feasibility in 2023.
Provaris’ first compressed hydrogen ship received design approval from ABS in December 2022. Provaris expects to enter shipbuilding contracts in early 2024.
The compression technology is not new, says Provaris Managing Director Martin Carolan. “It has been used for onshore storage applications for 50 years. What is unique is the idea of using compression to transport hydrogen in large-scale containment tanks which are integrated into a standard MR [medium range] or LR [long range] tanker.”
