PosHYdon heralds green future for offshore energy

By Graeme Forbes

The energy transition has gained renewed momentum amid the global pandemic, with oil and gas operators increasingly looking to carve a viable path to the new normal through adopting a more balanced approach to the energy mix.

Nowhere is this new-found drive towards greater sustainability more apparent than with the establishment of the world’s first offshore green hydrogen production plant, PosHYdon. The pilot initiative is commissioned by Nexstep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and re-use, and TNO, the Netherlands organisation for applied scientific research, in collaboration with wider industry.

Green hydrogen – hydrogen gas produced from renewable energy – is expected to be vital to shaping the energy transition. In the wake of the Paris Agreement and its commitment to substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally, hydrogen has the potential to offer a cost-effective solution to lower emissions in challenging sectors such as steel and heavy transport, whilst providing long-term, scalable energy storage and strengthening energy security.

Independent exploration and production company Neptune Energy is playing a key role in the PosHYdon project centred around its Q13-a platform – located near the Dutch coast, 13 kilometres from Scheveningen. The two-year pilot aims to integrate three distinct energy systems on-board the North Sea platform: offshore wind, offshore gas, and offshore hydrogen by producing hydrogen from seawater.

Throughout the project, Neptune Energy and its partners will gain valuable practical experience of producing green hydrogen in an offshore environment.

Project lead and development manager at Neptune Energy, René van der Meer, explained: “While large offshore windfarms are typically powered by hundreds of megawatts of energy, the first steps in the PosHYdon project will be to optimise production costs and prove its effectiveness before the technology can be rolled-out for large-scale developments.

Once proven to be successful, offshore hydrogen production has enormous potential and can help to fuel the energy transition. It is still fairly early in the process, but we feel confident that PosHYdon has the potential to be a game-changer for the industry at large.

First unveiled in July 2019, PosHYdon will see a (single) megawatt electrolyser placed within a sea container and installed on Neptune’s Q13-a platform. As the first fully electrified offshore oil platform in the Dutch North Sea, it is an ideal setting for the project and currently saves around 16.5 kilotons of CO2 each year.

With an extensive gas infrastructure network, and access to large amounts of wind energy in the North Sea, the Netherlands is uniquely placed to generate hydrogen offshore, which can then be transported onshore, along with natural gas, via existing pipelines for industrial, transport and domestic use.

Due to begin production in 2021, subject to the award of European subsidies, PosHYdon will involve converting seawater to demineralised water and then using green electricity to produce hydrogen.

Believed to be the first hydrogen factory at sea, the containerised green hydrogen production facility fits on most offshore platforms due to its relatively small size. Currently powered by a subsea cable, providing green electricity from shore, the platform can be directly powered by offshore wind in future. René added: “The global situation has complicated matters slightly but we remain confident of securing the relevant funding and finalising the remaining details, which will allow us to accelerate the project from early 2021 with an expected delivery time of around one year.

“While the financial implications created by Covid-19 have resulted in certain industry projects being delayed or deferred, our focus – within Neptune – on this project is unchanged. We are preparing to make significant progress between now and the end of the year as we near the production start date.

"As soon as production begins, you have probably learnt between 80% and 90% of the process, which is extremely valuable for other projects where you can share your expertise and lessons learned."

The way in which companies find and produce energy must change markedly to meet reduced emission targets in a sustainable way. To that end, Neptune Energy has developed its own environmental, social and governance strategy (ESG), which sets out key performance measures. The company has established ambitious carbon and methane intensity targets to 2030 as an initial first step and committed to applying new technologies to reduce its carbon footprint.

“We are seeing a positive shift across the industry with much more interest in hydrogen energy projects of all sizes, which will hopefully gain traction in the months and years ahead,” said Mr Van der Meer.

“Working alongside conventional energy production, PosHYdon fits perfectly into the industry’s long-term strategy of reducing emissions and optimising current infrastructure as a stepping stone to the energy transition.

“As the first project of its kind, PosHYdon is rightly receiving a great deal of international attention. It’s not a one-off, but it’s exciting to think where this might lead to next.”