Hydrogen is remarkable. The lightest and most abundant of all elements, it is non-toxic, non-corrosive and, when used as a zero-carbon fuel, emits nothing but water vapour and warm air. It is destined to play an important role in the decarbonisation of the world’s economies. But how do we move from hydrogen theory to hydrogen reality?
Right now, if you were to try selling hydrogen as a commodity, you would find very few buyers. For most potential customers, handling hydrogen, storing it, distributing it, and sourcing the right type of engines, boilers, and fuel cells to use it, is just too much of a challenge. To recreate the market and unlock opportunities, holistic approaches that encompass infrastructure as well as the production, are needed.
In the UK, a focus of the government’s hydrogen policy is the scaling up of the production and the building out of the infrastructure based around a series of geographic clusters. This is a logical way forward and, over time, it is set to catalyse a thriving hydrogen economy. But, in parallel, there are many smaller scale, more localised opportunities providing immediate potential for businesses to accelerate their decarbonisation programmes. And this is one territory that Petrofac is supporting and pursuing through a strategic partnership with green hydrogen firm Protium.
Selling hydrogen as a service
The aim of the partnership is to provide a service to energy-intensive businesses, zeroing-in on those who have prioritised the decarbonisation of their activities, care deeply about their reputation, want to build their ethical credentials, and have made ambitious Net Zero commitments. Instead of attempting to sell them hydrogen as a commodity, the idea is to sell hydrogen as a service, offering a tailored, holistic proposition that will enable these businesses to accelerate their decarbonisation programmes.
Our partnership combines Protium’s green hydrogen expertise and market knowledge with Petrofac’s world-class engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) and legacy in delivering energy infrastructure projects. This means we can provide a full EPC offering, involving the development of renewable energy assets, green hydrogen production facilities, and downstream hydrogen equipment – such as mobility, heat, and electrical solutions. Based on this Protium is targeting the delivery of 1GW of UK green hydrogen production assets by 2030.
Interestingly, several of the earliest commitments to green hydrogen development projects come from the food and drink industry.
Anheuser-Busch InBev turns to green hydrogen for its Magor brewery
Budweiser Brewing Group UK&I, the UK arm of global brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev, teamed up with Protium to explore deployment of zero emission green hydrogen at Magor brewery in South Wales, the largest brewery in the UK.
The hydrogen will fuel the brewery’s production, as well as its key logistics assets including Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGVs) and forklift trucks. The use of green hydrogen technology will help to provide zero carbon power and fuel for all its operations, an important step for the brewery to become carbon neutral.
© Supplied by PetrofacThe use of hydrogen-fuelled solutions aims to provide Magor Brewery with clean on-site power, which, if successful, will demonstrate Budweiser Brewing Group paving the way to a more sustainable future for the broader industry. Globally, AB InBev has set ambitious 2025 Sustainability Goals which includes 100% of its electricity throughout its worldwide operations will come from renewable sources.
The project, which is expected to be commercially operational by 2024 and could generate up to 20MW of Zero-Carbon energy, involves one of the first examples of a hydrogen purchase agreement (HPA).
Catalysing the wider adoption of hydrogen
The food and drink industry could be described as sustainability trailblazers. They care about their carbon credentials, are relatively intensive energy users, and aren’t prepared to wait for the wider market. They are also located well outside of the UK’s planned hydrogen clusters.
By spotting an opportunity and moving ahead with it, they are also serving a wider social purpose – demonstrating the potential of hydrogen and proving that, with some smart thinking and innovative purchase agreements, it is possible for individual businesses to move ahead to a greener future.
Increasingly, this will be complemented by larger scale initiatives. Given its climate, its coastline, and its innovation credentials, the UK is likely to be a front-runner and should become a hydrogen exporter. Meanwhile, other regions like the Middle East, given their vast solar and wind resources, are set to pursue gargantuan projects that can use green hydrogen as an effective energy store for the global market.
Wherever you look, and whichever way you look at it, this must be one of the most exciting aspects of the energy transition – and an area where, at Petrofac, we are well positioned to help partners and clients prove the potential.
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