Clutching more fresh orders for its alkaline water electrolysis systems for producing green hydrogen at industrial scale, Dortmund, Germany-based thyssenkrupp nucera is reporting robust business growth while further investing to refine its technology and build infrastructure to meet growing demand.
In its latest financials, issued December 18 and following its debut as a public company in July, the company reported that it grew strongly in the 2022/2023 financial year ending September 30 with a significant increase in sales and more than two-and-a-half-fold increase in profit. For the coming year, more growth in the mid-double-digit percentage range is forecast.
The new orders come from both Europe and North America. In Finland, it will collaborate with Neste on a project to incorporate a 120 megawatt water electrolyzer into Neste’s refinery in Porvoo for the production of sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and renewable feedstocks for various applications in the polymer and chemical industries. Announced in October, the agreement covers the supply of six standardized 20 MW scalum modules.
The scalum Alkaline Water Electrolysis module from thyssenkrupp nucera combines about 300 high-efficiency cells into one powerful unit with a system capacity of 20 MW. Designed as a standardized modular solution that can be easily interconnected and scaled up unit by unit, the prefabricated AWE units can be easily transported, installed and interconnected to obtain the desired plant capacity, up to several hundred megawatts or even gigawatts as a cost efficient, highly modularized solution for large-scale green hydrogen production.
“Our project is one of the largest development projects for green hydrogen production in European refineries and supports our goal of transforming Neste’s Porvoo refinery into the most sustainable refinery in Europe by 2030. The green hydrogen would primarily be used in the refinery’s processes to replace hydrogen produced from fossil raw materials. The investment decision readiness is expected to be reached during 2024,” says Markku Korvenranta, Executive Vice President at Neste Oil Products.
Neste is also looking into using the thermal energy generated during the production of green hydrogen for district heating. Accordingly, the Finnish company has started a preliminary study with Porvoon Energia, a regional Finnish energy company focused on heat and power generation and distribution, as well as power grid development.
“The hydrogen projects at the Porvoo refinery will be an integral part of the European value chain for the production and use of green hydrogen. Neste has chosen our highly reliable alkaline water electrolysis technology for this purpose in order to make its refinery more sustainable and significantly reduce its carbon footprint,” says Dr. Werner Ponikwar, CEO and Chairman of the Executive Board.
“Demand for our highly efficient and large-scale electrolysis systems grows continuously. That’s why Neste selected the option to partner and reserve production capacity at thyssenkrupp nucera to support the timeline of its project. It is now the third reservation agreement for production capacities within just a few months,” noted Dr. Christoph Noeres, Head of Green Hydrogen at the company.
Earlier, an unnamed company signed a reservation agreement in June for a North American project involving the 20 MW scalum electrolyzers for a total installed capacity in the high multi-hundred megawatt range. The company needs alkaline water electrolyzers to implement its growth strategy in the market for green hydrogen, however, the two companies have agreed not to disclose further details of the contract.
“With our reservation agreement to reserve our production capacities, we enable companies to plan with greater certainty for projects in the megawatt and gigawatt range. With this instrument, we can support our customers in realizing their expansion plans in the fast-growing green hydrogen market,” said Noeres. “In North America, the hydrogen economy is picking up speed and will certainly set the global pace in the coming years. With this agreement, thyssenkrupp nucera has achieved an important milestone for its third project in this important key market.”
H2 Green Steel was the first company to secure manufacturing capacity by signing a reservation agreement and later a supply agreement. The industrial start-up from Sweden is using the electrolyzers to produce green hydrogen for the first commercial-scale green steel plant in Europe, using the standardized 20 MW modules to build to a capacity of 700 MW.
With other deals previously signed, thyssenkrupp nucera has contracted more than 3 gigawatts of capacity of alkaline water electrolysis. These include a more than 2 GW electrolysis plant for Air Products in Saudi Arabia, making it one of the world’s largest green hydrogen projects, the delivery of Shell’s new 200 MW hydrogen plant in the port of Rotterdam, and H2 Green Steel’s plant. For more info, see www.thyssenkrupp-nucera.com.
