Industrial gases company Air Liquide will receive €190mn ($208mn) from the French government for a 200MW electrolyser project in Normandy, pending state aid approval by the European Commission.

The proton-exchange-membrane unit will be built by Germany’s Siemens Energy and will provide green hydrogen to TotalEnergies’ refinery in Normandy from 2025.

“I welcome the French state’s commitment to Air Liquide Normand’Hy. This support will allow the realisation of a major and innovative large-scale renewable hydrogen production project,” says Benoit Potier, CEO of Air Liquide.

Air Liquide hopes to sign a power-purchase agreement with TotalEnergies for the electrolyser.

“This support will allow the realisation of a major and innovative large-scale renewable hydrogen production project” Potier, Air Liquide

The project is part of a wider scheme to decarbonise the Normandy industrial basin. Air Liquide is also investing in a carbon-capture unit at TotalEnergies’ existing 255t/d steam methane reforming (SMR) hydrogen facility and is taking over operations there under a long-term contract with TotalEnergies.

Both units will be connected to the local Air Liquide hydrogen network. The network will also be used to decarbonise local transport applications.

CCS infrastructure

Air Liquide, Austrian chemicals company Borealis, ExxonMobil-owned Esso, TotalEnergies and fertiliser manufacturer Yara International have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure in Normandy with the aim of reducing emissions by up to 3mn t/yr by 2030. Captured emissions from the SMR facility will be fed into this infrastructure.

The firms will operate a CCS service model to help local industrial units to decarbonise, removing 700,000t/yr CO₂ from the region’s emissions.

Air Liquide CFO Jerome Pelletan says that the economics of the wider CCS project will work without government subsidies.

Growing finance

The firm launched the world’s largest clean hydrogen infrastructure fund on 1 October with a number of other companies. The $1.7bn Hy24 fund aims to finance projects across the hydrogen value chain.

It has also started construction of an industrial-size green hydrogen production unit in Germany that will be linked to the existing local Air Liquide pipeline infrastructure.

France’s €7bn hydrogen plan was launched in 2020 and aims to reduce industrial emissions by 81pc below 2015 levels by 2050.

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Author: Tom Young