RWE's hydrogen project gets €108mn from EU Innovation Fund
SUMMARY
RWE's FUREC project aims to produce circular and green hydrogen from non-recyclable municipal solid waste in Limburg, the Netherlands.
By Shardul SharmaPOSTED IN:
RWE's FUREC project, which aims to produce circular and green hydrogen from non-recyclable municipal solid waste in Limburg, the Netherlands, received a €108mn ($117.7mn) grant from the EU’s Innovation Fund, the company said on January 19.
RWE said that the funding marks a key milestone for advancing the FUREC project, which will require an investment of more than €600mn to complete. The company has also started to contract preferred suppliers for the plants, potential customers for hydrogen and CO2, and companies that can provide waste of suitable quantity and quality. A final investment decision is to be made in 2024.
As part of the FUREC project, RWE plans to build a pre-treatment plant in Zevenellen, Limburg, to convert non-recyclable municipal solid waste (MSW) into solid recovered fuel pellets. The plant will process about 700,000 metric tons/year of MSW, of which about 50% will be of biogenic origin.
The feedstock pellets from the pre-treatment plant will then be converted into hydrogen in a second RWE plant which the company is to build at the Chemelot industrial park in Limburg.
RWE said that by using this hydrogen, the Chemelot industrial park will be able to reduce its natural gas consumption by more than 280mn m3/year. This corresponds to half of the annual domestic gas consumption in Limburg, it added.
The CO2 released during hydrogen production is captured and can be stored or possibly used as a raw material by industry in the future. The hydrogen will either be marketed locally in the Chemelot industrial park or transported to industrial companies in Rotterdam and the Ruhr area. FUREC is preparing the necessary grid connections to the hydrogen and CO2 infrastructure.
