German authorities have granted Hydrogenious LOHC a permit to build and operate a hydrogen storage plant based on liquid organic hydrogen carrier (LOHC) technology.
The ‘Hector’ plant at Chempark Dormagen in North Rhine-Westphalia will store around 1,800 tonnes of hydrogen per year in Hydrogenious’ LOHC benzyltoluene to advance further research into the technology and supply its planned release plant.
Hydrogenious says the project will become the “world’s largest” commercial LOHC storage plant using benzyltoluene.
Hydrogen produced by Hydrogenious’ shareholder Covestro Deutschland, at its chlorine electrolysis plant, will be used during the project.
Chlorine electrolysis involves electrolysis of a sodium chloride (brine) solution to produce chlorine gas at the anode and hydrogen at the cathode.
The company says the hydrogen used will be qualified as renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) under current EU criteria.
Hydrogenious’ subsidiary, LOHC Industrial Solutions NRW, will manage, construct, and operate the plant. Operations are expected to begin at the end of 2027.
The company’s planned LOHC release plant, named Blue Danube, in the Ingolstadt region will support the storage plant, which is expected to enter front-end engineering design (FEED) shortly.
Blue Danube was awarded €72.5m ($82.6m) in EU, national and regional funding under the Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI) scheme.
“I’m 100% sure that, jointly with our partners, we will deliver our contribution to the clean energy supply of the future with the first LOHC supply chain between ‘Hector’ and ‘Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube’,” said Hydrogenious COO, Dr.-Ing Stefan Bürkle.
LOHCs have been positioned as a cheap, simple way to transport and store hydrogen. By being combined with the carriers, hydrogen takes on a liquid form similar to that of hydrocarbons, allowing it to be used in existing energy transport infrastructure.
Hydrogen can be bound to the carriers through an exothermic hydrogenation process and released through an endothermic dehydrogenation process.
Despite the potential of LOHCs, critics point to the energy efficiency penalties during release as a key challenge ahead of commercial viability.
Dr. Andrea Lehmann, CEO of Hydrogenious, said the approval of the storage plant showed the viability of the firm’s technology on an “industrial scale.”
Can LOHCs deliver hydrogen’s global potential?
Hydrogen is often slated as a solution that could deliver zero-emission benefits without the substantial changes to operations and widespread infrastructure of electrified alternatives. But just as the energy carrier’s properties make it suitable for some applications, they make it notoriously difficult to store and handle.
The majority of the existing (grey) hydrogen is consumed near to where it is used. However, this looks to change as regions look to harness its zero-emissions benefits when produced from renewable sources. The Hydrogen Council’s Global Hydrogen Flows report said that 400 million tonnes – of the 660 million needed for Net Zero in 2050 – could be transported over long distances1.
But with a low volumetric density, unless compressed or liquefied, hydrogen uses a huge amount of space and can leak easily.
Compressed gaseous hydrogen and liquid hydrogen are the most commercialised technologies but come with difficulties. Compressed hydrogen has a lower storage density than other solutions, making it unsuitable for long-range transportation. While the cost of cryogenically cooling and storing hydrogen as a liquid at -253˚C, raises concerns over storage and efficiency.
For those reasons, moving hydrogen over long distances in its pure form looks to prove a tall order, which has seen a rising interest in hydrogen carriers that could facilitate an easier-to-handle way of transporting the molecule…
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