Overcoming the chicken-and-egg problem with "GET H2 Nucleus

Emsland, Münsterland and the Ruhr region are to become a starting point for the hydrogen economy and thus contribute to achieving the climate targets. By 2025, an infrastructure from Lingen to Gelsenkirchen with green hydrogen is to significantly reduce CO2 emissions from industry. The five companies involved, BP, Evonik, Nowega, OGE and RWE, have now signed the realization contracts as part of the "GET H2 Nucleus" project. They are thus starting the implementation of their first "Important Project of Common European Interest" (IPCEI) within the framework of EU funding for such important projects of European interest.

The aim of the projects is to create an important starting point in the Emsland, Münsterland and Ruhr regions for the hydrogen economy that is to emerge in Germany in the coming years. The implementation is intended to create the basis in the regions for connecting further producers and consumers of green hydrogen from industry and small and medium-sized enterprises. This will allow the building blocks of the GET H2 Nucleus to become an important economic factor for the regions as well as for Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia.

The contracts now signed overcome the chicken-and-egg problem. They regulate the conversion and construction of the hydrogen pipelines as well as the mutual rights and obligations of the contract partners until the operational start of the building blocks of the GET H2 Nucleus. Starting points for the cooperation of the project partners in the future market, the rules of the game for the already planned extensions of the system and the integration of further players have also already been laid out in the contracts. The network is to be available to all on a non-discriminatory basis.

The overall project at a glance: The RWE Generation electrolysis plant in Lingen will use green electricity to produce hydrogen. The plant on the site of the Emsland gas-fired power plant is scheduled to come on stream in 2025 and would then be one of the world's first electrolysers with a capacity of 100 MW. An expansion to 300 MW in subsequent years is already planned.

On the route from Lingen via Evonik's chemical park in Marl to Gelsenkirchen, existing pipelines of the current natural gas network of Nowega and OGE as well as existing pipelines of Evonik are to be converted to transport hydrogen. In addition, shorter pipeline sections will be newly built to connect producers and consumers. At BP's refineries in Gelsenkirchen and Lingen and at the Marl Chemical Park, green hydrogen is to be used in the production process and as a raw material, replacing "gray" hydrogen, the production of which generates CO2 emissions. For the chemical industry, hydrogen not only serves as a source of energy, but is also important as a raw material for numerous products.

A planned hydrogen storage facility operated by RWE Gas Storage West in Gronau-Epe and an electrolyzer at the BP site in Lingen are also to be connected to the network. The infrastructure of the GET H2 Nucleus also creates the basis for the implementation of further network components and the connection of additional producers, consumers as well as important import routes. (aum)