Production & Import

Hydrogen has been produced, transported, stored and used safely in Germany for decades, especially in the chemical industry. Plants for the production of hydrogen are planned and built according to proven technical rules and regulations, so that safe and hazard-free operation is guaranteed at all times.

The planned hydrogen network will have a decentralized structure. The majority of the electricity required will be produced offshore and transported via the public electricity grid to the sites of the electrolyzers, where it will be used to produce green hydrogen. The hydrogen is then transported to customers and storage facilities via a hydrogen network. The area required for a 100 MW electrolysis plant is around 10,000 m².

An electrolyser emits the usual noise of an industrial plant, comparable to that of a power plant. The relevant noise sources are planned in a way that the relevant immission points (e.g. residential buildings) are not located within the impact area of the plant to be assessed.

For the production of 1 kg of hydrogen in a so-called PEM electrolysis, 9 liters of water are consumed. For a 100 MW electrolyzer running at 4,000 full load hours per year, this would be around 77,000 m³ of water per year. For comparison: 2.5 billion m³ of water flows towards the North Sea through river Ems in one year. (Source: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ems average flow rate of the Ems at Versen (near Meppen) = 80 m³/sec)

The use of PEM electrolysis is predominantly planned in the projects, including the GET H2 Nukleus project. PEM stands for Proton Exchange Membrane. The advantage of PEM electrolysis is that no additional chemical consumables need to be added. It can also be ramped up and down quickly, allowing it to react to fluctuations in the availability of renewable electricity.

The products of a so-called PEM electrolysis plant, such as the one planned in Lingen, are hydrogen and oxygen. No further environmentally harmful by-products are produced.

The use of hydrogen reduces other forms of energy production. This is because the extraction of crude oil and natural gas, the generation of nuclear power and the production of electricity in coal and gas-fired power plants also consume water. One example: In the GET H2 Nukleus project, the electrolyser for generating hydrogen is being built in Lingen - the neighboring Emsland nuclear power plant has been shut down in 2022. This will balance out the water consumption for energy generation. No negative effects are therefore expected for the region.

Compared to a coal-fired power plant, the water consumption of an electrolyser is three times lower for the same output.

The German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water (DVGW) carried out a study on this issue in 2023 and came to the conclusion that the water resources are easily sufficient for the planned production of hydrogen in Germany.

You can find the study here (german).

There are applications in which fossil fuels cannot be replaced by electricity. This applies, for example, to refineries, the chemical industry or steel production. Here, green hydrogen replaces so-called gray hydrogen, which is produced from natural gas and generates CO2 emissions. On the other hand, hydrogen makes the use of coal, oil or gas obsolete. These are the applications in which green hydrogen will be the first to be economically viable.

Green hydrogen is also needed for synthetic fuels, which can reduce CO2 emissions in shipping and aviation, for example.

Electricity cannot yet be stored in large quantities. However, renewable electricity can be stored by converting it to hydrogen, for example in existing underground cavern storage facilities. Transporting hydrogen in a pipeline network over long distances is very efficient. As many existing pipelines in the natural gas network can be used and converted to hydrogen, this pipeline network can be set up quickly and cost-effectively.

Two main technologies are used to produce green hydrogen using electrolysis: alkaline electrolysis and polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysis.

Depending on the application, a PEM electrolyzer can have an efficiency of between 60 and 70%. At the same time, it can absorb fluctuating renewable energies, start within a few seconds and quickly adjust its output. If the simultaneously generated oxygen can also be used, the efficiency increases as energy is also saved that way. (Source BDEW: https://www.bdew.de/energie/effizienzsteigerung-bei-der-wasserstofferzeugung/)

The additional electricity consumption by the electrolysers must be covered by an increased expansion of renewable energies and an import strategy for renewable energies. In the first quarter of 2024, 58.4 % of electricity was generated from renewable energies in Germany (source: Federal Statistical Office). This share must continue to grow across Germany.

However, it does not make sense to wait until the entire electricity demand is covered by renewable energies before starting to produce hydrogen. This is because both electricity generation from wind and solar power as well as the demand for electricity fluctuate naturally. In order to cover the demand for electricity at all times, an extremely large number of wind and PV systems would have to be built. In very windy or sunny periods, however, plants already have to be switched off to compensate for an oversupply. Hydrogen enables electricity from wind and PV systems to be stored in order to compensate for fluctuations in generation.

Regardless of the development of a hydrogen infrastructure, the achievement of climate targets will be accompanied by a sharp increase in electricity demand and a necessary expansion of these capacities.

Which electricity may be used for the production of green hydrogen is regulated in the so-called electricity procurement criteria. The operators of the electrolysis plants must prove, e.g. through guarantees of origin, that they have purchased renewable electricity in the same quantity as the electrolyzer (and the auxiliary units) has consumed. There is proof of this.

The imported green hydrogen must meet the same electricity procurement criteria as the green hydrogen produced domestically/in the EU. This must be proven by certificates and will be verified. Actors such as the H2Global Foundation, which is to initiate international import structures for green hydrogen with the support of the German government, are also important for this.

It is important that the electricity used for electrolysers is certified as green by means of guarantees of origin. It is then clear that the electricity does not cause any additional CO2 emissions: The same amount of electricity is generated from renewable energy sources as the electrolyzer consumes. Of course, the generation capacities for renewable energies must be significantly expanded so that demand can be met.

In the long term, only green hydrogen is sustainable. Initially, however, there will be neither enough renewable energy nor enough electrolyzers to meet demand. For a transitional period, hydrogen should therefore also be produced from natural gas, for example, or be imported. The resulting CO2 is to be injected and used industrially or stored underground. This use of hydrogen from sources other than renewable energy to launch the hydrogen economy is planned by both the German government and the EU Commission in their hydrogen strategies. However, it is clear that this is not compatible with the goal of climate neutrality in the long term and must therefore be phased out. According to experts, hydrogen from nuclear energy is too expensive and will therefore not be marketable.

There are numerous countries and regions that have great potential for the production and export of green hydrogen. According to the National Hydrogen Strategy, around 70% of the hydrogen to be used in Germany will be imported. According to studies, a significant proportion of this will come from Norway, France and Spain. However, the German government has also already held talks and entered into partnerships with Canada, Chile, Australia, Morocco and other countries regarding the import of hydrogen.

Hydrogen from European countries or countries bordering Europe, such as North African or Scandinavian countries, can be imported via pipeline systems. Hydrogen transportation then works in a similar way to domestic transportation or the current import of natural gas.

If hydrogen is imported from distant countries such as Australia or Chile, it is brought to German and European ports by ship. The hydrogen is then either transported in a strongly cooled, liquid form, as a so-called hydrogen derivative such as ammonia, or bound to a liquid carrier, a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC). At the ports, the hydrogen is converted back into gas and fed into the hydrogen network and distributed.

Liquid hydrogen has the advantage of extremely high purity and comparatively simple handling at the import terminal. The complex liquefaction process takes place in the exporting country, which significantly simplifies the entire process.

LOHC technology uses an industry-proven thermal oil to transport hydrogen very safely and without loss by tanker, ship or train.

The long-term race to import hydrogen over very long distances remains open.