Shell, Daimler to link green hydrogen truck fueling in Germany, Netherlands

London — Shell and Daimler Truck will roll out a hydrogen refueling network between three renewable hydrogen production hubs in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Cologne and Hamburg in Germany from 2025, Shell said May 20.

Shell aims to launch heavy-duty refueling stations between the three locations, with Daimler Truck's hydrogen fuel cell vehicles going to market in 2025, Shell said in a statement.

Shell is developing green hydrogen projects at the three sites.

The plan aims to build a 1,200 km hydrogen freight corridor by 2025 and deliver 150 hydrogen fueling stations and around 5,000 Mercedes-Benz hydrogen fuel cell trucks by 2030.

The route will have around 6-8 refueling stations, Shell's vice president for hydrogen, Paul Bogers, said at the Reuters hydrogen 2021 conference on May 20.

"If you think about the combined kind of demand centers of how many trucks are leaving both the Rotterdam and the Hamburg port on a daily basis, we have been overwhelmed by interest from customers," Bogers said. "The moment you open these corridors, you have a viable route."

"We want to help our customers lower their emissions by accelerating the speed at which hydrogen trucks become a commercially viable alternative to diesel equivalents," Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in the statement.

The agreement builds on the H2Accelerate consortium the two companies founded with OMV and vehicle manufacturers Volvo and Iveco. The consortium aims to "create the conditions for the mass-market roll-out of hydrogen trucks in Europe", it said at its launch in December.

S&P Global Platts assessed the cost of producing hydrogen via alkaline electrolysis in the Netherlands (including capex) at Eur3.95/kg ($4.83/kg) May 19. PEM electrolysis production was assessed at Eur4.99/kg.

Shell is developing a 200-MW electrolyzer at Rotterdam that could produce 50,000-60,000 kg/day of hydrogen, with operations planned to start by 2023.

The company is also developing a 100-MW electrolyzer project with Vattenfall, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and municipal heat supplier Warme Hamburg at Vattenfall's Moorburg power plant site.

And in Cologne, Shell plans to expand the 10-MW PEM electrolyzer at its Rheinland refinery to 100 MW.