Facts:

Main developer: Air Liquide

Air Liquide’s Green Hydrogen Project is part of the new hydrogen production facility in Rozenburg, which is being built carbon capture ready. The plant will be officially opened at the end of 2011.

The proposed pre-combustion capture plant will capture CO2, which is released in the production of hydrogen, and transport it through a pipeline to the newly to be built CO2 Hub at the Second Maasvlakte. At the Hub, the gas is liquefied, temporarily stored and subsequently transported by ocean vessels to the Danish Continental Shelf.

Air Liquide is currently investigating, together with Maersk Oil, the possibility of permanently storing the captured CO2 in mature Danish oil fields, in combination with enhanced oil recovery. The project is expected to start capturing CO2 by 2016, at a capacity of up to 0.55 Mtpa.

The Green Hydrogen Project is an innovative project, both in terms of the method used to capture and liquefy CO2 and in terms of the CO2 Hub concept, known as Rotterdam Cintra (‘Carbon in Transport’). Cintra is being developed by Air Liquide in conjunction with Vopak (for temporary storage), Anthony Veder (for transport by ship), and Gasunie (for pipe infrastructure). Stedin, in partnership with the Port of Rotterdam, handles the transport of CO2 in the Rotterdam port area.

Funding

The Air Liquide project has applied for funding from NER300, and was submitted to the European Investment Bank by the Dutch Government on 9 May 2011. Read ZERO article. The project will also receive €90 million of funding from the Dutch Government if successful in the NER300. The cost of the hydrogen plant will be 160 mill Euros. The cost of the capture unit is currently not known.