Periodic Reporting for period 4 - REFHYNE (Clean Refinery Hydrogen for Europe) Reporting period: 2021-07-01 to 2022-12-31 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project The REFHYNE project will install and operate a 10MW electrolyser from ITM Power at a large refinery in Rhineland, Germany, which is operated by Shell Deutschland Oils. The electrolyser will provide bulk quantities of hydrogen to the refinery’s hydrogen pipeline system (currently supplied by two steam methane reformers). The electrolyser will be operated in a highly responsive mode, helping to balance the refinery’s internal electricity grid and also selling Primary Control Reserve service to the German Transmission System Operators. The combination of hydrogen sales to the refinery and balancing payments create a business case which justifies this installation. This business case will be evaluated in detail, in a 2 year campaign of techno-economic and environmental analysis. The REFHYNE business model is replicable in markets with a similar regulatory structure to Germany. However, to expand this market to a GW scale, new business models will be needed. These will include valuing green hydrogen as an input to industrial processes (to meet carbon policy targets) and also on sales to H2 mobility markets. The REFHYNE project will gather real world data on these models and will use this to simulate the bulk electrolyser model in a range of market conditions. This will be used to produce reports on the conditions under which the electrolyser business models become viable, in order to provide the evidence base required to justify changes in existing policies. A campaign of targeted dissemination will ensure the results of these studies reach decision makers in large industrial sites, financiers, utilities and policy makers. The REFHYNE PEM electrolyser will be the largest in the world and has been designed as the building block for future electrolysers up to 100MW and beyond. REFHYNE includes a design study into the options for a 100MW electrolyser at the Rhineland refinery, which will help prepare the market for deployments at this scale. 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 year, the project focussed on the design process of the electrolyser system plant and its adaption to refinery operation. Whilst the core electrolyser unit itself already was designed, considerable design effort has been required to achieve effective integration and up-scaling of the stack with the balance of plant sub-systems. This has been achieved at the design stage as a result of close cooperation between ITM and Shell's technical experts to ensure that the REFHYNE package meets all the requirements, standards and compliance required for refinery operation. During the second period, in 2019, the project focussed on the detailed design of the electrolyser system plant and its integration to the refinery. It included technical and operational details as well as safety aspects. The design of the electrolyser package was subjected to two separate 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:• Shell's own hazard analysis process (ROGA) • ITM’s hazard and operability study (HAZOP), a structured and systematic examination of the process in order to identify and evaluate problems that may represent risks to personnel or equipmentFrom January 2020 to June 2021, the project focussed on assembly and integration of the 10 MW electrolyser system in the new dedicated building at the refinery. On the dissemination side, the project has now produced 3 videos, which are available from the project website. The first site visit was held in July 2020 with the visit of the EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson to the refinery. The other major outreach event was the inauguration of the electrolyser on July 2nd 2021. High level guests such as Jens Geier, Member of the European Parliament and Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and Armin Laschet, North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister-President were present.After the inauguration in July 2021, completion, testing and resolution on the system were performed the first part of the 4th period (last half of 2021). The electrolyser is now mechanically complete and fully integrated in the control system of the refinery process plant. During design and initial testing, learnings related to Regulations Codes and Standards and technical teething problems have been summarised and made available via the project website (refhyne.eu). Before the main operational phase begins, the electrolyser has been run for more than 1200 hours and produced more than 21,000 kg hydrogen. With the extension of 18 months, the project will be able to operate the electrolyser for a longer period and thus gain a better understanding of both technical, environmental and economic aspects of large scale electrolysers.Summaries of findings and learnings from the construction and initial operation:Design phase• Delays were caused by the need to overcome barriers and knowledge gaps by industrial partners. • The first of a kind nature of the project resulted in ITM needing to learn fundamental refinery design rules, while Shell needed to adapt to electrolyser design rules. • Overcoming these hurdles and identifying where to deviate from traditional industry rules added time to the project. Manufacturing phase• The COVID-19 pandemic began during the manufacturing phase of the project and led to significant delays.• Multiple national lock down in the UK impacted the building and Factory Assurance Testing of the electrolyser parts at the ITM site.• Equipment suppliers were also heavily delayed and face-to-face meetings were halted due to travel restrictions.Execution phase• The execution phase was further delayed by COVID-19 as travel restrictions limited ITM's access to the site in Germany.• As a multi-national project, travel restrictions that prevented the entry of UK citizens into Germany had significant impacts on productivity. • Building delays were also experienced as pipe suction lines were required to be rebuilt to accommodate unforeseen changes. Initial operation• During the first test phase of the electrolyser system, certain technical issues have been experienced and prevented operation. These have mainly been caused by components outside the core electrolyser technology. Examples are cooling pipeline design and materials, DI-water unit and gas driers. 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 overall objective of the REFHYNE project is to deploy and operate a 10MW electrolyser in a Power to Refinery setting. In doing this, REFHYNE will validate the business model for using large scale electrolytic hydrogen as an input to refineries, prove the revenues available from primary and secondary grid balancing in today’s markets and create an evidence base for the policy/regulatory changes needed to underpin the required development of this market. This will increase the knowledge in using green hydrogen in industrial applications, which is necessary for the shift towards the use of more renewable energy in industry. With coming data from the operational phase of the electrolyser, detailed analysis will reveal the actual results and progress made. Final results are expected in mid-2024. REFHYNE 10 MW electrolyser REFHYNE Shell refinery site building REFHYNE 10 MW electrolyser by night REFHYNE 10 MW electrolyser inauguration REFHYNE building at the refinery
