Technology group Thyssenkrupp has expanded its manufacturing capacities for electrolysis plants and can now produce electrolysis cells with a total power consumption of up to 1 GW a year.
This is on the back of green hydrogen rising worldwide as an energy carrier and carbon dioxide emission-free feedstock for the chemical industry.
Thyssenkrupp says demand is rapidly rising for industrial electrolysis plants that produce green hydrogen in a cost-efficient manner.
The company notes that it will continue to expand its production capacities, together with its strategic supplier and joint venture partner De Nora.
“Many countries around the world are planning to enter the hydrogen economy. Water electrolysis is increasingly emerging as a key technology for building a sustainable, flexible energy system and carbon-free industry. This opens up new markets for us,” says Thyssenkrupp’s Chemical & Process Technologies business unit CEO Sami Pelkonen.
Green hydrogen, produced by electrolysis using renewable electricity is essential for a successful energy transition and for meeting international climate targets, Thyssenkrupp states.
As a specialist in the engineering and construction of chemical plants, Thyssenkrupp can already realise entire value chains, from the large-scale production of hydrogen to the subsequent manufacture of sustainable base chemicals such as ammonia and methanol.
In corresponding industrial processes this makes it possible to dispense with fossil raw materials and reduce carbon dioxide emissions directly at source.
“Especially in energy- and resource-intensive industries such as fuel, chemical or steel production, only green hydrogen opens the way to climate neutrality. For this, we need water electrolysis on a gigawatt scale.
“We can deliver, and as the number and size of hydrogen projects increases we will further expand our production capacities,” says Thyssenkrupp energy storage and hydrogen head Christoph Noeres.
However, he points out that reaching climate neutrality will not be possible without changing regulatory conditions and fair market opportunities for green hydrogen.
“In addition to the further expansion of renewable energies, the focus is on adjusting tax systems and crediting the carbon dioxide-reducing effect of green hydrogen in the target markets.”
To simplify the construction of new hydrogen plants and keep costs down, Thyssenkrupp offers its electrolysers in prefabricated skid-mounted modules.
One module produces 4 000 m3/h of hydrogen. The units are easy to transport and install and can be combined to realize projects of several hundred megawatts or gigawatts.
Owing to their high reaction speed, the plants can be operated flexibly; for the production of green hydrogen for industrial power-to-x applications, as well as for grid stabilisation.
The patented design of the electrolysis cells, equipped with proprietary anodic and cathodic coatings developed by De Nora, allows high system efficiencies of up to 80%.
Thyssenkrupp has already delivered more than 600 projects and electrochemical plants worldwide, with a total rating of over 10 GW.