Uniper repurposes LNG terminal site to hydrogen
Under the name Green Wilhelmshaven, Uniper SE plans to establish a German national hub for hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven and is working on a corresponding feasibility study. Uniper had been exploring construction of a 7-million tonne/year (tpy) floating LNG import terminal at the Wilhelmshaven site, but decided that long-term demand was insufficient to support the project (OGJ Online, Nov. 9, 2020).
Commissioning of an import terminal for green ammonia is planned for the second half of this decade. The terminal is planned to be equipped with an ammonia (NH3) cracker for producing green hydrogen and will be connected to a planned hydrogen network. A 410-Mw electrolysis plant is also planned, which – in combination with the import terminal - would be capable of supplying around 295,000 tpy of hydrogen, or 10% of the demand expected for the whole of Germany in 2030.
Generated hydrogen will primarily be used to supply local industry but will also be fed into the national hydrogen network. This approach will help to solve one of the key problems of energy transition: security of supply, said Uniper. The NH3-splitting plant for producing green hydrogen would be the first scaled plant of its kind, according to project developers.
“Germany plans to generate 14 Tw-hr of green hydrogen in 2030, but the demand for that year is forecast to be 90–100 Tw-hr. The discrepancy between these two figures is abundantly clear. We will be heavily dependent on imports if we want to use hydrogen to help us achieve our climate goals,” said Uniper chief operating officer David Bryson.