Shell New Energies, French utility Engie, tank storage specialist Vopak and Dutch gas shipping firm Anthony Veder have teamed up to establish a renewable liquid hydrogen supply chain. The consortium said that with the first deliveries expected in 2027, they hope to manufacture hydrogen in the Sines port’s industrial zone and then transport it to the port of Rotterdam via a liquid hydrogen carrier.
The partnership has a mission to allow more certainty for liquid hydrogen customers. This new consortium claims to have the power to “drive the infrastructure development along the full supply chain” via the policy of covering cost increases for end users and reducing the cost of liquid hydrogen production.
According to the deal, Anthony Veder and Vopak will collaborate with Shell and Engie throughout the value chain, emphasizing transportation, storage, and distribution. By researching the viability of generating, liquifying, and shipping green hydrogen from Portugal to the Netherlands, where it would subsequently be kept and distributed for sale.
Within the consortium, Shell and ENGIE will collaborate across the whole value chain, while Anthony Veder and Vopak’s involvement will focus primarily on shipping, storage, and distribution. They will initially assess the possibilities for creating, moving, and storing about 100 tpd, with the possibility of an increase in the future.
Portugal and the Netherlands have strengthened their ties to renewable energy following a memorandum of understanding signing in 2020.
In April, the idea of renewable energy came around when a European consortium containing significant companies such as Portuguese developer Madoqua Renewables, Dutch energy transition project developer and consultancy Power2X, and Danish fund manager Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners announced an initiative to build an industrial-scale complex for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia in Sines. The project, known as, MadoquaPower2X, is underway and expected to be completed by the end of 2023.
Following the emergence of the consortium in April, the Portuguese government made Sines, home to the country’s largest deepwater port, the center of its national EN-H2 hydrogen strategy.
By May 2022, both Portugal and the Netherlands had confirmed their joint goals at the Rotterdam World Hydrogen Summit.
