Vattenfall working on green hydrogen demo project at Scottish offshore wind farm

Vattenfall is working on a hydrogen demonstrator project named Hydrogen Turbine 1 (HT1), which involves installing hydrogen production equipment on one of the wind turbines at its Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm (European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre) in Scotland.

The company has already submitted a couple of applications for pipeline route surveys with Marine Scotland, as well as an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Opinion Request accompanied by a report.

As reported at the beginning of December 2021, Vattenfall contracted Fugro to carry out a geoscience survey and subsequent data processing and reporting for a proposed hydrogen pipeline route connecting its European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC) and Aberdeen Port.

According to the application documents filed with Marine Scotland, the developer submitted its first application for a pipeline route survey in August 2021 and then applied for the same work to be carried out at an additional route on 14 December (application document dated 17 November 2021).

The HT1 project would retrofit one of the offshore wind farm’s existing turbines by installing an extended transition piece platform to house hydrogen production equipment. The hydrogen-producing wind turbine would be connected to an onshore storage and offtake facility by a subsea flowline transporting green hydrogen to the shore.

The company detailed on the HT1 project in the screening report, saying that the transition piece of the B06 turbine at EOWDC would be fitted with a platform which would provide sufficient area for the installation of an electrolyser, desalination equipment, and compressors, housed in up to seven separate shipping containers with additional cooling where required.

A new J-tube would be installed to route the flowline from the transition piece to the seabed, and extraction and discharge pipes would extend from the equipment into the water column.

The hydrogen transmission system from the B06 offshore wind turbine to the onshore storage facility is expected to consist of a single flexible flowline, from the hang-off location on the turbine foundation to the onshore tie-in location.

Aberdeen Offshore Wind Farm, or the European Offshore Wind Deployment Centre (EOWDC), has been operational since 2018 and it is Scotland’s largest offshore wind test and demonstration facility.

The offshore wind farm comprises eleven Vestas 8.8 MW wind turbines installed on suction bucket foundations.