Gasunie joins PosHYdon pilot project

Dutch energy infrastructure company Gasunie has joined the PosHYdon pilot, a project that aims to integrate three energy systems in the Dutch North Sea: offshore wind, offshore gas, and offshore hydrogen.

The PosHYdon pilot is an initiative of Nexstep, the Dutch association for decommissioning and reuse, and TNO, the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research, in collaboration with the industry.

Other companies involved in the project include Neptune Energy, TAQA, EBN B.V., NAM, NOGAT B.V., and Noordgastransport B.V.

The PosHYdon pilot project will involve the installation of a hydrogen-producing plant on the Neptune-operated Q13a platform.

Electricity generated by offshore wind turbines will be used to power the hydrogen plant on the Q13a platform, converting seawater into demineralized water, then into hydrogen via electrolysis. The aim of the pilot is to gain experience in integrating working energy systems at sea and the production of hydrogen in an offshore environment, Neptune Energy said.

“Gasunie is already working hard to accelerate the energy transition, including several hydrogen pilots on land, and have the necessary knowledge and experience with electrolysis in-house,” Lex de Groot, Managing Director of Neptune Energy in the Netherlands, said.

“Now these two worlds onshore and offshore are literally connected in terms of infrastructure. The pipelines and infrastructure at sea of ​​NOGAT and Noordgastransport are already suitable for hydrogen and that is good news as offshore production will continue to be crucial to meet Dutch energy demand.”

De Groot pointed out that the Netherlands is in a special position due to its extensive gas infrastructure network and the abundance of wind in the Dutch North Sea.

”The wind energy can be used to generate hydrogen, then transport onshore along with natural gas via the existing large pipelines of NOGAT and Noordgastransport for customers in industry, the transport sector and for Dutch homes. PosHYdon is key to accelerating this,” de Groot said.

The Q13a is the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, located approximately 13 kilometres off the coast of Scheveningen.

Han Fennema, CEO of N.V. Nederlandse Gasunie, said: “The Netherlands is in a strong position to lead the transition to a hydrogen economy. We have the North Sea for the production of wind and gas, the ports as logistics hubs, the industrial clusters that want to switch to green molecules and excellent infrastructure for transport and storage.”