thyssenkrupp nucera (Dortmund, Germany) and Neste Corp. (Espoo, Finland) plan to collaborate on a project to incorporate a 120 megawatt (MW) water electrolyzer into Neste’s Porvoo refinery in Finland. Neste, the leading global producer of sustainable aviation fuel, renewable diesel and renewable feedstocks for various applications in the polymer and chemical industries, has now signed an agreement with thyssenkrupp nucera to reserve production capacities for an alkaline water electrolysis plant. The agreement covers the supply of six standardized 20 MW scalum® modules with a total installed capacity of 120 MW, including corresponding advisory services.
“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 with the thyssenkrupp nucera electrolyzer at the refinery 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 of thyssenkrupp nucera. In July 2022, Neste became the first Finnish company to receive IPCEI (Important Project of Common European Interest) status from the European Commission for the company’s hydrogen projects.
“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,” emphasizes Dr. Christoph Noeres, Head of Green Hydrogen at thyssenkrupp nucera AG & Co. KGaA.
“We are pleased to cooperate with thyssenkrupp nucera regarding the electrolyzers. Should the investment decision be made, the reservation agreement would allow us to promptly proceed into the next stage,” acknowledges Tero Sario, Project Director for the Porvoo Renewable Hydrogen project at Neste.
Binding contracts have been signed by thyssenkrupp nucera with companies worldwide, securing over 3 gigawatts of electrolysis capacity. The alkaline water electrolysis specialist is already supplying its 20 MW modules for the electrolysis plant for Air Products in Saudi Arabia with a capacity of over 2 gigawatts (GW), making it one of the world’s largest net zero hydrogen projects. H2 Green Steel is also relying on the standardized 20 MW modules with a capacity of over 700 MW for its green steel mill in Sweden. The reference projects underline that thyssenkrupp nucera is the world’s leading technology provider for the industry in the range of several 100 MW up to the gigawatt power range.