A consortium, including DEME Offshore and Eneco, will develop the world’s first offshore green hydrogen pilot having secured a grant from the Dutch government.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) has awarded a subsidy of €3.6m to the PosHYdon project enabling the consortium to start up all activities for the pilot, which will be installed on a working offshore oil and gas platform.

The remaining budget will be funded by the consortium partners.

PosHYdon seeks to validate the integration of three energy systems in the Dutch North Sea, which are offshore wind, offshore gas and offshore hydrogen.

It will involve the installation of a 1MW electrolyser on the Neptune Energy-operated Q13a-A platform.

The Q13a-A is the first fully electrified platform in the Dutch North Sea, located approximately 13 km off the coast of Scheveningen, near The Hague.

TNO gas technologies director Rene Peters said: “PosHYdon will teach us a lot about the next steps that need to be taken towards safe, large-scale green hydrogen production at sea.

“Offshore green hydrogen production will enable large-scale wind farms to be developed far out at sea. Wind energy is then directly converted to green hydrogen and can be transported through the existing gas infrastructure.

“As a result, offshore wind projects can be realised faster at significantly lower costs for society. I am therefore very happy that we can now progress with PosHYdon."

Nexstep national platform for reuse and decommissioning managing director Jacqueline Vaessen said: "Together with a number of operators and TNO, this idea arose about two years ago from a brainstorming session of the 'Re-purpose' working group within Nexstep.

“We looked at what the best location would be to host this pilot and then arrived at Neptune Energy's Q13a-A, since that platform is already fully electrified using green electricity.

“Then the pioneering and search for suitable consortium partners began. This award is a crown on the preparatory work. I am therefore extremely proud PosHYdon is now ready for this important next phase."

Electricity generated by offshore wind will be used to power the hydrogen plant on the Q13a-A platform, converting seawater into demineralised water, then into hydrogen via electrolysis.

The aim of the pilot is to gain experience of integrating working energy systems at sea and the production of hydrogen in an offshore environment.

In addition, in this project the efficiency of an electrolyser with a variable supply from offshore wind will be tested, and at the same time knowledge and insights on the costs for the offshore installation as well as maintenance costs will be obtained.

The green hydrogen will be mixed with the gas and transported via the existing gas pipeline to the coast.

The 1MW electrolyser will produce a maximum of 400kg of green hydrogen per day.

The following partners have joined the PosHYdon consortium: Nel Hydrogen, InVesta, Hatenboer, IV-Offshore & Energy and Emerson Automation Solutions.

Nexstep, TNO, Neptune Energy, Gasunie, Noordgastransport, NOGAT, DEME Offshore, TAQA and Eneco joined this group last year.