Repsol’s Petronor refinery now producing renewable hydrogen

Repsol SA has started producing renewable hydrogen at subsidiary Petróleos del Norte SA’s (Petronor)  220,000-b/d refinery and industrial complex at Múskiz, near Bilbao, Biscay Province, in Spain’s northern autonomous Basque Country.

Entered into operation in early October, the 2.5-Mw electrolyzer—Repsol’s first—is equipped to generate 350 tonnes/year (tpy) of renewable hydrogen, most of which will be used by Petronor’s refinery as a raw material for production of products with a reduced-carbon footprint, Repsol said.

Renewable hydrogen produced by the electrolyzer also will be transported via pipeline to be used for powering buses and heavy transport in the logistics platform at Abanto Zierbana Technology Park, located 1.5 km from Muskiz, where Repsol and the Basque Energy Agency have located the region’s first hydrogen refueling station there, the operator said.

Part of the first-phase development of Basque Hydrogen Corridor (BH₂C), a joint initiative launched by Petronor and Repsol to decarbonize the region’s energy, industrial, residential, and transportation sectors, the Bilbao refinery’s electrolyzer produce renewable hydrogen using renewable electricity to separate water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen based on a process and sources entirely free of carbon-dioxide emissions (OGJ Online, Sept. 21, 2021).

Petronor will also host two additional hydrogen plants that will include electrolyzers with capacities of 10 Mw and 100 Mw, respectively, the latter of which has been recognized by the European Commission (EC) as an Important Project of Common European Interest (IPCEI), Repsol said.

Part of Repsol’s decarbonization path to net zero emissions from its operations by 2050, the operator said it also plans to install electrolyzers nearby its remaining four refining and petrochemical industrial centers in Spain, including:

• A 100-Mw unit at its 220,000-b/d Cartagena refinery in the Spain’s southeastern province of Murcia, also qualified as an IPCEI.
• A 150-Mw unit near the 186,000-b/d Tarragona integrated refining and petrochemicals complex along northeastern Spain’s Costa Daurada of the Mediterranean Sea, which has been selected by the EC as an innovative project to receive funds under the Innovation Fund program.
• A 30-Mw unit near the 150,000-b/d Puertollano refinery in Spain’s province of Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha.
• A 30-Mw unit near the 120,000-b/d A Coruña refinery in northern Spain.

Repsol’s industrial sites in Spain currently produce a total of about 360,000 tpy of hydrogen, representing nearly 60% of the country’s overall demand, the operator said.

Production from the newly commissioned and future electrolyzers comes as part of Repsol’s ongoing plan to decarbonize its own operations, as well as support deployment of necessary infrastructure to help increase the use of hydrogen in the region’s broader industrial complex that helps enable lower-carbon manufacturing and consumption that aligns with the European Union’s larger net-zero journey.