Danish Firm Halder Topsoe Fires First Salvo In Green Hydrogen Manufacturing

The Catalyst Manufacturer has claimed that its upcoming facility to build electrolysers will cut the cost of Green Hydrogen by 20 percent

Green Hydrogen has started attracting some serious attention across the world now, with experts putting down a price of anything between $1.5 to $2 as the inflection point that will make it a mainstream energy option. It remains to be seen if the race to achieve those prices can be won earlier than the expected 2027-28.

Danish catalyst manufacturer Haldor Topsoe  has announced plans to build a large-scale facility to manufacture electrolyzers, that, when used to produce green hydrogen, would reduce cost by 20 percent.

These solid oxide electrolyzers (SOEC) that Halder Topsoe  expects to launch by 2023,  would start with an initial capacity of 500 megawatts (MW) per year, with the option to expand to 5 gigawatts (GW) per year.

Halder Topsoe states that these SOEC electrolyzers have efficiencies of more than 90 percent for electrolysing water, when compared to standard alkaline or Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. Overall Hydrogen output could be higher by 30 percent with these electrolysers.

Green Hydrogen, which is green simply because the energy required to power the electrolysers would come from renewable sources , especially wind and solar, has been a favourite with the oil industry too, as it pivots to the new realities of peak oil and a shrinking market for oil as an energy source. Thus, besides a shift to more chemicals manufacturing from crude, most of the private sector oil majors, ranging from Shell to BP to France’s Total have all announced aggressive plans in the space. One of the key reasons is the possibility of repurposing oil infrastructure for producing green hydrogen, which gives these firms an opportunity to sweat assets that risk being shut down before the end of their useful life otherwise.

Expect the announcement by Halder Topsoe to be the first of many by firms in the sector, as the race hots up.

Halder Topsoe itself is one of the global leaders in hydrogen technology, catalysts, besides services that enable efficient production of hydrogen. Its offerings include technologies for traditional natural-gas-based hydrogen production with the option of carbon capture, called blue hydrogen.

The firm is also a key technology partner in the  massive NEOM-project in Saudi Arabia,  which envisages the world’s largest Green Hydrogen producing facility and the full ammonia loop, using land equal to the size of Belgium, to house solar and wind energy facilities.