Orsted, BP to co-develop 50 MW green hydrogen project at Lingen refinery

Orsted and BP are to jointly develop a 50 MW renewable hydrogen project at BP's Lingen refinery in Emsland, northwest Germany, Orsted said Nov. 10.

The project, expected to be operational in 2024, would comprise a 50 MW electrolyzer capable of generating 9,000 mt/year of hydrogen, 20% of the refinery's current fossil-based hydrogen consumption. The electrolyzer is expected to be powered by an Orsted North Sea offshore wind farm.

"Renewable hydrogen has to become cost competitive with fossil-based hydrogen, and for that we need projects such as this with BP's Lingen refinery which will demonstrate the electrolyser technology at large scale and showcase real-life application of hydrogen based on offshore wind," said Orsted executive vice president Martin Neubert.

The partners have a longer-term ambition to build more than 500 MW of renewable hydrogen capacity at Lingen, providing renewable hydrogen to meet all the refinery's hydrogen demand and provide feedstock for future synthetic fuel production.

The partners have applied for funding from the EU Innovation Fund.

The European Commission has received 311 applications for projects under the Eur1 billion ($1.18 billion) fund, it said Nov. 5.

The projects applying for funding include 204 energy-intensive industrial projects, of which 56 were for hydrogen.

It also included 58 renewable energy projects, 35 energy storage projects and 14 carbon capture, use and storage projects.

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