TotalEnergies launches a giant call for tenders for green hydrogen

2023-09-14 08:46:55

This is progress in reducing polluting emissions and a big boost to the hydrogen sector, which is still in its infancy. TotalEnergies announced, Thursday September 15, the launch of a global call for tenders for the purchase of 500,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen by 2030, for its 6 refineries in Europe (Normandy, Donges and Feyzin in France, Antwerp in Belgium, Leuna in Germany, Zeeland in the Netherlands) and for its two French biorefineries, La Mède and Grandpuits.

One ton of gray hydrogen produces 10 tons of CO2

This is a first at this level. The volumes requested by the energy company alone correspond to almost half of the annual consumption of hydrogen in France (900,000 tonnes), which comes mainly from fossil fuels (natural gas), and qualified in this capacity of hydrogen “ gris “. It is a significant source of CO2.

The production of one ton of hydrogen, which is used in particular in refineries to desulphurize fuels, thus results in the emission of 10 tons of CO2. The other major use of hydrogen is for the manufacture of fertilizers.

Supplying the group’s European installations with green hydrogen, obtained by electrolysis of water with electricity from wind and solar sources, should thus make it possible to save 5 million tonnes of CO2. “ This is a major project that will contribute to achieving TotalEnergies’ objective of reducing its net emissions by 40%. » in 2030 compared to 2015, argues the group in its press release.

Encourage the sector to move faster

Until now, it had been content to conclude site-by-site contracts to supply itself with carbon-free hydrogen. It should also soon announce an agreement with Air Liquide to supply the Normandy platform from the end of 2026 with green and low-carbon hydrogen, that is to say from nuclear power.

With this call for tenders, TotalEnergies wants to encourage the sector to accelerate by producing more, which is the quickest way to reduce costs. A logic in which everyone is a winner.

Compare different technologies

The energy company will be able to test the market and compare the different technologies before opting for the one that seems most competitive. He is given one year to examine all the proposals received.

Part of the hydrogen could thus come from countries outside Europe, in Africa, and in the Middle East, where solar energy is inexpensive. But many technical questions still arise about the transport of hydrogen, a very volatile gas, which becomes liquid at -253°. Some also mention its transformation into ammonia, easier to move from one end of the planet to the other.

A landscape still very moving

But everything still remains quite vague, for TotalEnergies as for the players in the sector, who are being asked to move very quickly. In France alone, the government plans to deploy 6.5 GW of electrolysis by 2030, while current capacities are still only around thirty MW and the production plants of The electrolyzers are not yet operational! The French objective is, in any case, to achieve a production of 680,000 tonnes of green hydrogen by the end of the decade.

At what cost? A mystery, especially since in Europe, the rules of the game are not yet very clear, due to the bickering between France and Germany over the role of nuclear power in the production of carbon-free hydrogen and the bureaucratic red tape of the Commission.

The government will provide new subsidies

For the moment, gray hydrogen remains two to three times cheaper than green hydrogen, despite the surge in gas prices. But the government committed, at the beginning of September, to putting in place a support mechanism next year to compensate for this differential, with an envelope of 4 billion euros.

The announcement was eagerly awaited by the sector, which has been sounding the alarm for several months about the difficulty in setting up large-scale industrial projects. The TotalEnergies call for tenders should also give it more visibility.