Desalination for future offshore wind farms

A consortium has shown that it’s possible to extract climate-neutral hydrogen from seawater. Involved in the SEA2H2 project are automotive and industrial supplier Schaeffler, the startup Hydron Energy, which joined the Schaeffler Group in summer 2021, and Wageningen Food & Biobased Research, or WFBR for short, which is in turn part of Wageningen University.

The pilot plant on the Dutch island of Texel, situated in the North Sea, lies some 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of Amsterdam. The facility is already operational and treats seawater for use in membrane electrolysis. That’s because electrolyzers need high-purity hydrogen. The water from around the island must therefore be desalinated as well as undergo laborious purification and filtering processes. What the SEA2H2 technology will do in future is allow green hydrogen to be produced using electricity from offshore wind farms and then transported via pipeline to the mainland.

 

Innovation from Hydron Energy
As part of Schaeffler, the Hydron team is already working on scaling up its technology. The aim is to fabricate filtering, desalination and membrane electrolysis components on an industrial scale. At the same time, costs are expected to drop and operational efficiency and longevity are set to rise if things go according to the corporation’s plans.

“Hydrogen produced from green energy from offshore wind turbines will play a decisive role in achieving European climate targets,” assured Sander ten Hoopen. He is one of the founders of Hydron Energy and currently heads up Schaeffler’s system engineering. The experience gained thus far will now help toward further expanding Schaeffler’s value chain and enabling the competitive manufacture of green hydrogen, ten Hoopen was pleased to state.[…]

 

 

Desalination for future offshore wind farms - H2-international