수소뉴스 = 양인범 기자] 세계적인 에너지 기술 기업인 지멘스에너지가 프랑스 산업용 가스 기업인 에어리퀴드(Air Liquide)와 협력해 독일 베를린에 기가와트(GW)급 수전해 공장을 설립하고 수소 기술 양산을 위한 공식 가동을 시작했다. 이를 통해 지멘스에너지는 수전해 기기 대량 생산 체제에 돌입하면서 수소 경제 활성화를 위한 기반을 마련하게 됐다.
수소가 전 세계 탄소중립 달성을 위한 주요한 역할을 하기 위해서는 합리적인 가격으로 대량 공급이 가능해야 한다. 이를 위해서는 비용 효율적이면서 확장 가능한 방식으로 수전해 기기를 지속적으로 생산할 수 있어야 한다.
지멘스에너지와 에어리퀴드는 이번 공장 설립으로 연간 1GW 규모의 수전해 기기를 생산하는 것을 시작해 2025년까지 최소 3GW 생산 규모로 확대할 수 있을 것으로 기대하고 있다. 3GW 규모의 수전해 기기를 가동하면 연평균 30만 톤의 그린 수소를 생산할 수 있게 된다. 이 그린 수소로 화석 연료를 대체할 경우, 독일의 대도시 아헨(Aachen)의 인구 약 26만 명이 배출하는 양의 이산화탄소 배출을 감축할 수 있다.
지멘스에너지는 베를린 공장에 약 3,000만 유로(420억 원)를 투자해 2,000평방미터 규모의 수전해 생산 라인을 새로 증설했으며, 기존의 생산 시설 내 완비된 인프라와 숙련된 인력을 함께 활용하고 있다. 베를린 공장은 빠르게 성장하는 시장에 대응하기 위해 수전해의 핵심 요소인 스택을 다양한 고객사에 공급할 예정이다.
이 스택은 특히, 간헐적인 재생 에너지 공급에 적합한 고분자전해질막(Proton Exchange Membrane, PEM) 기술을 기반으로 하며, PEM 수전해는 다른 수소 기술에 비해 더 적은 원료와 인력 및 공간을 활용해서 기가와트 규모를 생산해 시장에 빠르게 공급할 수 있어 이상적이다. 수전해 프로젝트에 투입될 스택의 생산이 완료되면 프로젝트 현장 부근에서 조립을 진행해 비용 효율성을 더욱 높일 전망이다. 지멘스에너지와 에어리퀴드의 전략적 파트너십은 양 사가 가진 전문 역량과 포트폴리오 파이프라인을 기반으로 시너지를 창출하고자 마련됐다.
유럽에서는 이미 다수의 저탄소 및 재생 가능한 대규모 수소 프로젝트가 추진되고 있다. 프랑스 노르망디의 포르트 제롬(Port-Jérôme) 인근에 연간 25만 톤의 이산화탄소 배출을 감축하는 에어리퀴드 노르망하이(Normand’Hy) 200MW급 수전해 시설이 건설되고 있는데, 이 프로젝트가 지멘스에너지 베를린 생산 시설에서 생산될 PEM 수전해 기기의 첫 공급처 중 하나가 될 예정이다.
지멘스에너지는 선박용 연료 합성을 위한 수소를 공급할 덴마크의 카쇠(Kassø)(50MW), 스웨덴의 플래그십원(FlagshipONE)(70MW) 등 다른 여러 대규모 수전해 프로젝트도 진행하고 있다.
한국지멘스에너지의 홍성호 대표는 “이 공장의 가동을 시작으로 2025년 3GW까지 생산 규모를 확대함으로써 한국 시장에도 수전해 설비를 경제적이고 안정적으로 공급할 수 있을 것으로 기대된다”며 “한국 기업들이 성공적으로 에너지 전환을 달성하는데 수소 에너지가 경쟁력 있는 대안으로 고려될 수 있도록 긴밀히 협력해 나갈 것”이라고 덧붙였다.
Today Siemens Energy will launch the gigawatt-scale electrolyzer factory in Berlin paving the way for the ramp up of hydrogen economy.
With our production partner Air Liquide we start annual production capacity of 1GW and a ramp-up to at least 3GW PEM electrolysis in 2025 with potential for more.
Adding up to at the very least 18GW total capacity by 2030, we could provide almost double of the 🇩🇪German target of 10GW, or almost half of the 🇪🇺EU target of 40GW #electrolyzer capacity by 2030 out of our Berlin factory alone.
Technology is not the issue. What we need is a robust framework by policy makers. The following five points are critical to creating a robust, global market for clean hydrogen:
1️⃣ Optimize the framework: Advancing the hydrogen economy requires a faster pace, more political enablement, and less technocratic regulation. 2️⃣ Provide incentives: Incentives are needed in key offtake sectors to use hydrogen to store renewable energy and decarbonize industry. These include for example quotas and carbon contracts for differences in industry, in the decarbonization of electricity systems, and for mobility. 3️⃣ Improve financing systems and financial support: The energy transition needs financing, funding, and state guarantees to decrease risks and make hydrogen projects bankable. This is the only way to scale technologies, support domestic production, and expand the project pipeline. 4️⃣ Build infrastructure: Pipelines, ships, and terminals to transport hydrogen and its derivatives must be built quickly to connect supply and demand centers. 5️⃣ Establish clean H2 certification schemes: Globally recognized certification schemes are essential to making hydrogen a globally tradable commodity.
A strong European manufacturer basis for hydrogen technologies is paramount for Europe to become a global #hydrogen champion. Lets make Net-Zero happen!
The first #gigafactory for the #production of PEM #electrolyzers in Europe is now in operation! 🙌
Air Liquide and Siemens Energy have inaugurated their joint venture gigawatt electrolyzer factory today in Berlin in the presence of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French Industry Minister Roland Lescure, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck and other government officials.
Leveraging automation and robotics, this gigafactory will produce components in series for large-scale Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. With one gigawatt currently, Air Liquide and Siemens Energy expect a ramp-up to annual production capacity of three gigawatts by 2025.
The strategic partnership benefits from a portfolio of hydrogen projects. Some of them are already under development.
⏺️ In Oberhausen, Germany, the Air Liquide’s Trailblazer 20 MW large-scale electrolyzer project is reaching completion and aims to accelerate the decarbonization of the Rhine-Ruhr industrial basin.
⏺️ Near Port-Jérôme, France, the Air Liquide Normand’Hy 200 MW electrolyzer project is the largest PEM electrolyzer under construction, avoiding the emission of 250,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
With two global leading companies in their field combining their expertises, this Franco-German partnership plays a pivotal role in the emergence of a sustainable #hydrogen economy needed to forge the #energytransition.
Shifting to mass production is key to producing competitive renewable hydrogen. Partnering with Air Liquide, Siemens Energy is scaling production of electrolyzers using standardization and automation aiming to cut the cost of renewable hydrogen down to size. It’s a development that sits at the heart of the energy transition.
Hydrogen has a key role to play on the road to net zero.
Acting as an energy vector, a storage medium, a raw material for synthetic liquid fuels, and as a gaseous fuel able to address emissions from some of the hardest to abate industrial sectors like steel, chemicals, heavy transport and power generation, hydrogen is vital. Unfortunately, so-called green hydrogen generated using renewable energy is currently too expensive to produce. For this reason, thehydrogen market todayis dominated by steam reformation of natural gas, it’s essentially a fossil fuel. However, the imperative of climate change has been amplified by other factors such as security of energy supply concerns that have been greatly increased by the war in Ukraine, for example. This has emphasized the importance of developing a cost-effective renewable hydrogen industry and prompted an acceleration of the market.
Despite the growing interest in renewable hydrogen, the cost has remained an impediment to widespread adoption and displacement of the fossil-fuel derived hydrogen that dominates the current market. The joint venture between Siemens Energy and Air Liquide aims to producing industrial volumes of green hydrogen available bringing economies of scale through the mass production of electrolyzers. The move will not only secure access to electrolyzer capacity but crucially get them at the right price without compromising on safety, quality, and reliability.
Hydrogen Scaling production
Scaling renewable hydrogen production to industrial volumes starts with developing a supply chain that can meet global demand and deliver thousands of megawatts of electrolyzer capacity needed every year. By combining their expertise and efforts, Siemens Energy and Air Liquide intend to do just that with the launch of a gigawatt-scale factory in Berlin. The plant, which heavily relies on automation and robotics to produce electrolyzers in bulk, will initially produce 1 GW of Siemens Energy’s Silyzer 300 Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzer stacks annually. The PEM technology offers a high degree of efficiency and is ideally suited to the variable output that is typical of renewable energy resources. Furthermore, under current plans, this production capacity will increase by at least 1 GW per year, reaching a hefty 3 GW annually by 2025 with a potential for more. In a second step the electrolyzer arrays are being assembled locally, e.g. in the Siemens Energy manufacturing site Muelheim, or in external workshops in the Czech Republic or France or close to future project sites.
Production at the Huttenstrasse facility, located in Berlin’s Moabit district, has just started.The site has so far been known particularly to produce hydrogen-capable gas turbines. The new production line occupies some 2000 m2.The joint venture expects several benefits, alongside the economies of scale that are translating into a reduction in costs, as has been previously witnessed with renewable energy technologies like wind and solar PV. For example, by partnering with Air Liquide – which is taking a 25.1% equity stake in the JV alongside Siemens Energy’s 74.9% – the gigawatt-scale factory already has a strong business case with a reliable partnership that secures sustained, competitive and reliable product off-take. Both partners able to meet electrolyzer demand arising from their individual portfolios of hydrogen projects.
In addition, in partnering with Air Liquide, Siemens Energy has a strong relationship with a company that has vast experience and deep knowledge of the processes to produce the hydrogen and oxygen, such as hydrogen liquefaction, methanol synthesis, ammonia synthesis, or ammonia cracking.
It is key to long-term success that the Siemens Energy electrolyzer fits the needs of the downstream processes and can also be optimized to better meet those needs in the future. Air Liquide is already working with Siemens Energy electrolyzers deployed at its site in Oberhausen, Germany, in the flagship Trailblazer project. This allows both partners to gather detailed knowledge on how to integrate electrolyzers into an existing plant configuration and learn how to operate the system in combination with existing assets, such as compression and off-take. Sharing know-how, risks and opportunities, the partners aim to rapidly accelerate the transition to affordable renewable hydrogen.
One of the first projects to use stacks from the Berlin multi-gigawatt factory is Air Liquide’s Normand’Hy electrolyzer project. With a capacity of 200 MW, it is the one of the largest PEM electrolyzers currently under development. This project will apply the learnings from Air Liquide’s Trailblazer project in Oberhausen. Other renewable and low-carbon hydrogen projects are also earmarked for development in the Netherlands and elsewhere using the Berlin-produced stacks.
Continuing to cut costs
Within the framework of the partnership, Air Liquide and Siemens Energy have also agreed to dedicate R&D resources to the development of the next generation of electrolyzer technologies. Further efficiency improvements are anticipated, especially given the progress to date.
Siemens Energy started developing hydrogen electrolyzer technology more than a decade ago with a small lab-scale PEM. A commercial product, the Silyzer 200, followed in 2015 with a rated capacity of around 1.25 MW. Although the Silyzer 200 represented a major jump in capacity it was still not suitable for large-scale hydrogen production. That changed with the launch of theSilyzer 300which has more than 10 times the amount of hydrogen output than the 200 version. Indeed, the Silyzer portfolio scales up by factor 10 every four or five years and sees substantial improvements in efficiency with each generation.
Simultaneously, manufacturing processes have also evolved, from the hand-built Silyzer 100 and 200 to exploring the development of automated manufacturing equipment and implementation of larger scale machines with the launch of the 300. Siemens Energy is also developing manufacturing equipment together with external companies, removing manual processes and increasing automation.
The focus inBerlin is mass productionof the existing stacks and a huge step up in production volumes. Increasing production with a factor of 100, within four or five years is only possible in a fully automated large-scale mass production plant of the kind that is being developed in Berlin. Solid investment in manufacturing capacity is enabling the supply chain to invest in capacity growth with confidence too, ramping up from single piece production to mass production in line with stack manufacturing volumes.
In order to cut the specific cost of hydrogen, while mass production of the stacks will take place in Berlin, assembly of the final product will take place closer to the project sites.The Silyzer product contains 24 PEM stacks but built around it are the various ancillaries that are needed for the stacks to operate. These items include the manifolds for the gas, the cooling system, the gas separation system, and the electrical connections among others. In Germany, this stage of assembly will take place at Mülheim but that will change depending on the location of the final project. For the Air Liquide Normand’Hy project, for example, Siemens Energy will work with a French company to produce the skid-mounted electrolyzer array. This approach of working with external partners close to where the final customers are based is key to match the market needs.
Building a hydrogen ecosystem
Reasonably priced and affordable renewable hydrogen derived from renewables is a prerequisite for achieving net zero carbon. It is therefore key for our future. By moving into large-scale mass production, the Air Liquide-Siemens Energy partnership is taking a big step towards a cost-effectivehydrogen economy using automationand standardization to build economies of scale. At the same time as volumes soar, demand for the electrolyzer business is also rapidly accelerating, rising from approximately 50 or 60 stacks five years ago and increasing by a factor of 10 this year and another factor of 5 to 10 anticipated over the next few years. By fostering a global ecosystem for electrolysis and hydrogen technology, the joint venture is engineering access to industrial volumes of cost-competitive renewable hydrogen. The challenge is global warming, part of the solution is a gigawatt-scale factory
