Oil company vows to produce clean hydrogen at more refineries after opening largest green H2 project in Central and Eastern Europe
MOL Group has installed a 10MW electrolyser supplied by Plug Power, with an eye towards meeting EU targets and supplying potential renewable hydrogen market
Oil company MOL Group has installed a 10MW electrolyser at its Danube refinery in Száhalombatta, Hungary — the largest in Central and Eastern Europe to date — as its CEO vowed to produce green hydrogen at another two refineries.
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“After Száhalombatta, we will take the technology to the other two fuel production units of the group to make the fuel production process more sustainable at each of MOL Group’s refineries,” said József Molnár, CEO of Hungary’s MOL Group.
These include sites in Rijeka, Croatia and Bratislava, Slovakia — although whether electrolysers will also be installed at MOL Group’s fourth petrochemicals complex at Tiszaújváros, also in Hungary, has not been confirmed.
The Danube refinery is itself one of the largest in Central and Eastern Europe, processing 165,000 barrels of oil per day.
The company has not specified the exact power source supplying its electrolyser. In order for the firm to comply with EU targets for 42% of industrial hydrogen to be renewable by 2030, however, it will have to use green hydrogen produced according to the definition set out in the Delegated Acts passed last year.
Some oil companies are still holding the trigger on major hydrogen investments until member states transpose the directive into their own national policies — and thereby define penalties for non-compliance.