Wintershall Dea and Nord-West Oelleitung (NWO) will collaborate on Wintershall Dea's BlueHyNow project. A plant for production of large volumes of low-carbon hydrogen using Norwegian natural gas is being planned by Wintershall Dea. BlueHyNow is part of the energy hub currently under construction in Wilhelmshaven, Germany.
NWO has a partly unused pipeline infrastructure in the region, expertise in raw material transportation and storage, and a site at the deepwater port in Wilhelmshaven. Under a memorandum of understanding, the companies plan to complete a feasibility study by yearend. The study will explore the construction of a hydrogen production plant on the NWO site in Wilhelmshaven.
The hydrogen produced can be delivered by pipeline to industrial customers for use as a decarbonized energy source or as a raw material, reducing CO2 emissions.
According to current forecasts, hydrogen demand in Germany will rise to 90-110 TWh/year from the current 55 TWh/year as early as 2030, but currently plans by the government will only add around 28 TWh/year. Wintershall Dea hopes to support hydrogen market development with BlueHyNow and its capacity of 5.6 TWh/year. CO2 generated during production will be captured and shipped to Norway and Denmark for storage in deep geological rock layers under the seabed, the company said.