Gigantic green hydrogen grant | Chemical giant's PEM project to receive €134m from Germany after EU approval
BASF plans 54MW electrolyser at its German headquarters to help decarbonise its operations and learn about the technology
Chemicals conglomerate BASF is to receive a lump sum of €134m ($132.7m) from the German government to build a green hydrogen project in the country, after the European Commission (EC) signed off the grant under its state-aid exemption rules.
The 54MW proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser at BASF’s Ludwigshafen headquarters, scheduled for operation by 2025, will produce 5,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year as well as 40,000 tonnes of oxygen, predominantly for use in BASF’s chemicals business.
The company currently produces around 250,000 tonnes of hydrogen at its Ludwigshafen site — either from unabated fossil gas or as a by-product from its other chemical processes. In total, BASF consumes around one million tonnes of hydrogen per year across all its global sites, again almost all of it fossil-based “grey” hydrogen, using it to produce ammonia, methanol and polymer-based materials such as plastics.
BASF, which is working on the electrolyser scheme in partnership with Siemens Energy, declined to comment on the total capital expenditure of the project, noting only that the German government grant has made it “possible”.
"Step up"
Executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, who is in charge of competition policy and signed off the exemption from EU state aid rules, said that the EC took the decision because it would help Germany replace fossil-based hydrogen in a hard-to-decarbonise sector.
“This €134m measure enables Germany to help BASF step up its renewable hydrogen production capacities, thereby contributing to the greening of the chemical value chain and of the transport sector,” she said.
In addition to green hydrogen, BASF has also been conducting work on methane pyrolysis, so-called “turquoise” hydrogen, a process which uses high-temperature heat in the absence of air to produce hydrogen and solid carbon from methane.
Funded by the German government, BASF and its partners have built and now operate a test project at Ludwigshafen that uses pyrolysis to produce hydrogen from biomethane. The process uses around 80% less electricity than water electrolysis and is “virtually” carbon-dioxide free when powered by renewable energy, BASF claims.
Solid carbon, or “carbon black”, is a commodity that is used in tyre production and as a pigment, among other chemical applications, but critics have questioned whether the market will be big enough to absorb carbon black from widespread turquoise hydrogen production.
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