Clean Refinery Hydrogen for Europe II

Project Information

REFHYNE II

Grant agreement ID: 101036970

DOI

10.3030/101036970

EC signature date 10 September 2021

Start date 1 October 2021

End date 28 February 2029

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 150 212 428,80

EU contribution

€ 32 431 618,00

Coordinated by

SINTEF AS
Norway

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - REFHYNE II (Clean Refinery Hydrogen for Europe II)

Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2025-08-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The European Union has recognised the importance of hydrogen as a clean energy vector. Hydrogen produced from renewable energy is expected to play a significant role in decarbonising some of the most hard-to-treat sectors, including industry, heat, and transport. Further, the use of hydrogen as a flexible and long-term energy storage medium will enable increasing penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources onto electricity grids and help support the economic case for the decarbonisation of electricity generation. To realise the ambitious European Hydrogen Strategy goals, the European electrolyser sector must scale up at a very rapid rate, to retain a significant European share of the market and safeguard European value creation.

REFHYNE II will install a 100MW PEM electrolyser at Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rheinland in Cologne, Germany, using renewable power to produce green hydrogen and oxygen, which will be fed-in to the existing refinery networks to decarbonise refinery operations. The electrolyser will be based on a state of the art stacks integrated into pre-engineered 10MW electrolyser trains, with factory assembled balance of plant to reduce the amount of bespoke work required to integrate electrolysers into new sites. REFHYNE II will achieve a viable business case for large-scale electrolysis at refineries by valorising the hydrogen stream in the refinery and receiving RED credits for the hydrogen produced, while minimising the cost of hydrogen through improvements in efficiency and capital cost. A research task will explore the upgrading and use of oxygen and waste heat to higher temperatures for use in the refinery, to further improve the business case. Power will be sourced through novel PPAs with named renewable plants. Emissions avoidance will be achieved by displacing the hydrogen currently produced on-site through SMR and adapting the refinery to allow the electrolyser to act as a flexible load and hence contract direct with renewable generators, to increase renewable penetration into the grid. Research work packages will support the deployment of 100MW+ scale electrolysers at refineries and industrial sites across Europe and enable GW-scale electrolysis systems to be implemented. Finally, a thorough dissemination work package will exploit the results of the project by delivering key messages to target audiences, and supporting three fast follower sites (of which at least two will be located in EU13 countries) to rapidly replicate the results of the project.

The overall objective of the project is to prove the technical and commercial viability of renewable-coupled electrolysis at the 100MW scale in a complex and representative industrial setting. A thorough campaign to extract and share learnings from the deployment will facilitate the rapid replication of the project across Europe and ensure the realisation of the project provides a pathway to GW-scale electrolysis across Europe, in line with prevailing European strategies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the first period of the project, the 100 MW electrolyser and overall system plant has been engineered in a collaboration between Linde, ILE, ITM and Shell. This collaboration has proven efficient to ensure that the REFHYNE 2 design package meets all the requirements, standards and compliance required for refinery operation. The design includes technical and operational details, integration to the refinery as well as safety aspects. There has been hazard/risk analysis processes during the design stage to ensure consistency with Shell's rules for safe working and integration with the wider HSSE strategy for the site. in addition to the technical design activities, there have been further preparations for techno-economic and GHG analysis of the operational data from the system once the system is in operation.

During the second period, the REFHYNE 2 project has robustly entered its execution phase. Following a period of restructuring and a revised design, the project restarted when Shell took the Final Investment Decision (FID). This established the updated timeline, with the 100 MW electrolyser now scheduled to be operational before summer 2027. The project is currently on track, and recent months have demonstrated strong performance in civil construction, procurement, commissioning, and operational readiness, while maintaining a rigorous focus on safety, quality, and value delivery. Civil works are visibly progressing, nearing completion for structures like the water polishing building, and the project has reached key construction milestones. Beyond physical construction, PPA contracts (Power Purchase Agreements) have been analyzed and negotiated to secure access to renewable energy for the production of RFNBO (Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin) hydrogen. In parallel with the construction work, the team has completed initial LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) and economic analyses, alongside a refinery market study. In summary, the REFHYNE 2 team has demonstrated resilience and adaptability in tackling challenges, and with robust risk management, the project is well-positioned to achieve its objectives.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project will deploy a state-of-the-art 100MW electrolyser at the Shell energy and Chemicals Parks Rheinland in Wesseling, near Cologne, Germany. The state-of-the-art system will consist of MW-sized stack modules engineered into larger electrolyser trains. With this project we expect to:

- Reduce the capital cost of the installed electrolyser stack and the fully integrated system, through a combination of scaling-up and technology improvement
- Improvements at stack level to improve the overall electrolyser performance through concurrent increases in efficiency and current density
- Develop a pan-European supply chain with GW-scale electrolyser production capacity
- Demonstrate direct contracting between an electrolyser and a “New” renewable power supply portfolio (on- and offshore wind + solar), whilst optimising trading activities with regards to plant economics
- Produce green hydrogen at lower cost than has previously been achieved, to enable the business case for its use on an industrial scale
- Demonstrate a viable business case for the production of green hydrogen in a large-scale industrial setting

With the REFHYNE 2 project, we will increase the knowledge in, and accelerate deployment of integrating large scale electrolysers in industrial sites. Green hydrogen is one important element in the green transition in hard to abate industry sectors such as refineries.

Illustration of the REFHYNE 2 100 MW electrolyser building