European Energy orders electrolyser array for e-methanol project

The Danish developer and operator of green energy projects has ordered a 50MW electrolyser for the plant that will be built in Kassø in the south of Denmark, near the German border. Through the nearby 300 MW solar park of Kassø, developed by European Energy, the project will have access to the low-cost renewable electricity needed to produce cost-effective e-fuel.

End users of the e-methanol will be Maersk and the fuel retailer Circle K, among others. The project secures the e-methanol supply for Maersk’s first e-methanol driven container vessel. MAN Energy Solutions notes that Maersk’s small methanol-fuelled container feeder will eventually require circa 10,881 tons of methanol per year at 50% load.  

The start of commercial methanol production is planned for second half of 2023. 

Siemens Energy will design, supply and commission the electrolysis system consisting of three full arrays of its latest and most powerful line of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis products including transformers, rectifiers, distributed control system plus the equipment to produce demineralized water. The arrays will be comprised of German-made Siemens Energy Silyzer 300 stacks. 

The Energy Silyzer 300 stacks offer an efficiency of near to 80% at full load. At lower loads, stack efficiency can easily surpass 80%.

Siemens Energy told The Motorship that the order was the largest booked by Siemens Energy to date. The electrolyser capacity was 1t/h, but as PEM electrolysers do not typically operate at full capacity continuously, the facility’s output will likely be below the 8,736t nameplate capacity.

European Energy is the owner of the project and will be responsible for the engineering, procurement and construction, as well as for the operation of the facility.

Knud Erik Andersen, CEO of European Energy, said: “We are pleased to place this important order of what is believed to be the first large-scale commercial power-to-X project of its kind in the world. This is a crucial moment in the green transition as we move forward with the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors such as the shipping industry, and we trust that Siemens Energy outstanding know-how of electrolysers will become a strong foundation to expand our business of delivering sustainable fuels to the world.”

Global shipping consumes around 3,050 terawatt hours (TWh) of energy. This is more than five times the total electricity consumption of Germany, and as nearly all is based on fossil fuels, the shipping sector emits about 1,000 million tons of CO2 per year, about 13% of the greenhouse gas emissions from global transport.