Biomethanol offers a promising pathway to decarbonise hard-to-electrify sectors, particularly the maritime sector and the chemical industry. By supplementing the hydrogen naturally present in biomass-derived syngas, renewable hydrogen can help convert more of the biogenic carbon into biomethanol, thereby increasing production yields.
Lhyfe already has four installed production sites in Europe, to be six by year end. The company continues its scaling-up with the development of large-scale onsite projects, ranging up to several hundred megawatts. The Netherlands is one of Europe’s most mature markets for green hydrogen, and Lhyfe is actively developing projects there, including this major 120 MW project in Delfzijl.
Perpetual Next is developing DeltaNor as a 220,000 tonne-per-year biomethanol production facility in the same industrial cluster, as one of five biomethanol facilities currently in various stages of development by Perpetual Next, including DeltaNor.
Under the MoU, Lhyfe Delfzijl and Perpetual Next will assess the potential integration of renewable hydrogen from Lhyfe’s planned Delfzijl renewable hydrogen production facility with Perpetual Next’s DeltaNor facility.
“Access to competitively priced renewable hydrogen will be an important consideration in the continued development of DeltaNor” said René Buwalda, CEO of Perpetual Next. “This MoU gives both companies a structured framework to evaluate how locally produced renewable hydrogen could support our biomethanol facility while strengthening the development case for both projects.”
The partners aim at a potential supply of up to approximately 12,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per year. Any supply arrangement would be subject to further technical and commercial evaluation.
In terms of location, Delfzijl is home to a significant industrial and chemical industry and is already a large user of hydrogen as a chemical feedstock. That need is set to grow significantly in the future as decarbonization will become unavoidable in the long term, in particular under the revised Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), which requires Member States to ensure that renewable hydrogen (RFNBO) accounts for a minimum share of industrial hydrogen consumption by 2030 and 2035.
The parties will now continue their technical and commercial discussions, including evaluating renewable hydrogen supply arrangement and supporting the further development of their respective projects in Delfzijl.
“This agreement reflects the strong industrial complementarity between our renewable hydrogen project in Delfzijl and Perpetual Next’s biomethanol development” said Luc Graré, Chief Strategy Officer at Lhyfe. “It illustrates the growing role of renewable hydrogen in decarbonising hard-to-abate sectors. We look forward to working together to demonstrate the synergies between the two projects within the Delfzijl industrial cluster and to strengthen their respective industrial cases, including in the context of the public support schemes required to enable their development.”
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