Air Liquide is planning to build in Oberhausen, Germany, a renewable hydrogen production plant by electrolysis. With a total capacity to reach 30 MW, a first phase of the project is expected to be operational by early 2023 with 20 MW. What is unique about this project is that the electrolyzer will be integrated into the existing local pipeline infrastructure of Air Liquide to supply key industries and mobility with renewable hydrogen in one of the most industrialized regions of Germany. To accelerate the implementation of this project, public funding has been granted by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy. This worldscale electrolyzer will be the first to be built in the framework of the partnership between Air Liquide and Siemens Energy.

The new proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer to be built by Air Liquide will produce renewable hydrogen from water and renewable electricity. The technological solution for the project is being developed in the framework of the previously announced partnership between Air Liquide and Siemens Energy.By 2023, the two partners will implement a 20 MW electrolyzer plant that will produce renewable hydrogen and renewable oxygen. In a second phase, Air Liquide has planned to increase the plant capacity to 30 MW. 

The PEM electrolysis is expected to start operating in early 2023 and will be the first large-scale renewable hydrogen production connected to both existing hydrogen and oxygen pipelines, with nearly 15 large industrial sites already connected today. This will support sectors such as Steel, Chemicals, Refining and Mobility in North Rhine-Westphalia by accelerating the availability of gases produced with renewable electricity for their efforts to reduce their carbon footprint.

"Leveraging on Air Liquide’s existing hydrogen pipeline network, the renewable hydrogen produced will accelerate the decarbonization of the Rhine-Ruhr industrial basin and it will foster clean mobility in a densely populated region," said François Jackow, Executive Vice President and a member of the Air Liquide Group’s Executive Committee supervising Europe Industries activities. "The construction of this industrial scale renewable hydrogen production plant will mark the first realization of the partnership Air Liquide and Siemens Energy created to enable the emergence of a sustainable hydrogen economy in Europe. It is in line with Air Liquide’s Sustainable Development Objectives, which include contributing to the development of a low-carbon society with hydrogen as one of its key levers."