Companies To Produce Green Hydrogen From Converted Jack-Up
Three companies have joined forces to develop a concept for offshore green hydrogen production by using a converted jack-up rig in the North Sea.
Offshore engineering solutions Aquaterra Energy signed a partnership with renewable hydrogen producer and supplier Lhyfe and offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling. These organizations will lead Project Haldane, an industrial-scale offshore green hydrogen production concept, through the deployment of an electrolyzer system on a converted jack-up rig.
This unique solution should solve the challenges related to grid connectivity and intermittency of supply created by remote locations, preventing the full use of reliable winds far out in the North Sea.
The solution will provide an off-take for the electricity produced near the wind farm and aims to use existing platforms, pipelines, terminal infrastructure, and offshore equipment leveraging the existing infrastructure to reduce costs.
The concept will offer an alternative deployment to existing assets – such as jack-up drilling rigs traditionally used for oil and gas exploration – provide a source of green hydrogen and enhance the commercial feasibility of remote offshore wind projects.
“With our expertise in complex offshore operations and fleet management, Borr Drilling will leverage its core capabilities to evaluate the adoption of this alternative energy source in an environment with a large untapped potential,” Director of Operations at Borr Drilling Darren Sutherland said. “While we will continue to work in our traditional drilling market, this project reinforces our ambition to continuously improve the sustainability of our activities and align our service offering with the changing expectations of our customers and stakeholders.”
“Lhyfe is already producing renewable hydrogen in industrial quantities onshore, with a direct connection to renewable energy, pumping seawater and purifying it to feed the electrolysis process. This is hence a production process already considering offshore harsh conditions. Over the last few years, we have also been working on different projects to deploy our production process offshore,” CEO at Lhyfe Matthieu Guesné stated.
“Offshore wind offers the greatest potential for sustainable hydrogen production because of the cost-effectiveness that can be achieved through scalability and technological innovation. The market is yet to deliver a flexible solution that benefits from the existing infrastructure in the North Sea and Lhyfe wants to be at the forefront of this change by creating a world-first green hydrogen production of this kind,” he added.
Aquaterra also stated that the consortium welcomes any interested parties to submit inquiries while the concept is still in its early stages.
“With years of experience in the successful delivery of complicated offshore jack-up operations, complex structural projects, and offshore process systems we are excited to be the interface that brings together the interest of Lhyfe in offshore markets and expands on Borr Drilling’s expertise in jack-up rig equipment. Our unique value here is that we are multilingual in terms of the engineering and operational needs of oil and gas assets, and green energy processing systems,” the Managing Director at Aquaterra Energy James Larnder said.
To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com
No comments:
Post a Comment