Rotterdam Port Authorities Mull Power-to-Gas-Plant Development

PORT of Rotterdam authorities have teamed up with members of the energy and logistics industries to explore the commercial possibility of building a power-to-gas plant for hydrogen production.

News ID: 71781

Date: 23 January 2017 - 09:07

According to MANA, The port, along with the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Stedin, Uniper, SmartPort and BP Refinery Rotterdam are looking into the technical and economic feasibility of developing such a plant at the port area and regulatory changes which are needed to make it happen.

It noted that the crude oil refining process uses substantial amounts of energy which is traditionally derived from fossil fuels.

The development of a power-to-gas facility at the port would allow the conversion of sustainably generated electricity — from the upcoming offshore wind farms in the North Sea — into hydrogen to be used in the production process at BP's refinery at the port.

Current power-to-gas plants do not have the hydrog.en production capacity of the Rotterdam project.

Possible issues to be addressed in the study include modifications needed to the refinery's production process, legal and regulatory approvals and the commercial viability of such a plant.

TNO will concentrate on the regulatory aspects from the supply chain angle for “green hydrogen” and synergies between hydrogen production and sustainably generated electricity from offshore wind power plants, said the port authorities.

In December last year, the port announced an increase in tariffs for seagoing vessels by 0.3%, which is roughly half the rate of inflation over the year.