Shell Nederland B.V. and Shell Overseas Investments B.V., subsidiaries of Shell plc, have taken the final investment decision to build Holland Hydrogen I, which will be Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational in 2025. The 200MW electrolyzer will be constructed on the Tweede Maasvlakte in the port of Rotterdam and will produce up to 60,000 kilograms of renewable hydrogen per day.

The renewable power for the electrolyzer will come from the offshore wind farm Hollandse Kust (noord), which is partly owned by Shell.

The renewable hydrogen produced will supply the Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam, by way of the HyTransPort pipeline—a new hydrogen pipeline through the Port of Rotterdam which will form a part of the Netherlands hydrogen infrastructure—where it will replace some of the grey hydrogen usage in the refinery.

The HyTransPort pipeline begins on the Maasvlakte 2, where the renewable hydrogen plant will be situated and connected to the pipeline. The end point of the first phase of HyTransPort is at Pernis. The pipeline is 32 km long and will be underground. There is a pipeline corridor in the port of Rotterdam, especially intended for pipelines such as this one. Five branch-offs to consumers and/or producers of hydrogen have currently been penciled in.
In Phase 2, the pipeline will eventually connect to the national hydrogen backbone and hydrogen storage facilities of HyNetwork Services and the international hydrogen network.

This will partially decarbonize the facility’s production of energy products such as gasoline and diesel and jet fuel. As heavy-duty trucks are coming to market and refueling networks grow, renewable hydrogen supply can also be directed toward these to help in decarbonizing commercial road transport.

Shell’s ambition is to help build a global hydrogen economy by developing opportunities in the production, storage, transport, and delivery of hydrogen to end customers.

Shell currently owns and operates around 10% of the global capacity of installed hydrogen electrolyzers, including a 20 MW electrolyzer in China and a 10 MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer in Germany. They can produce, respectively, 3,000 tonnes and 1,300 tonnes of hydrogen a year.

Shell is working on a number of low-carbon hydrogen production projects with potential capacity of more than 950 ktpa (Shell share).

European Union legislation determines under what conditions the hydrogen produced can be defined as Renewable Hydrogen or as a Renewable Fuel of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBO). The criteria are covered by the ‘Renewable Energy Directive (RED). Shell aims to produce hydrogen in accordance with the Directive and its associated Delegated Acts (DAs). Some parts of the relevant EU legislation such as the Delegated Acts are under discussion and have not yet been finalized. Shell says that it will take the resulting legislation into consideration when producing hydrogen.