A company in the Netherlands has created an electrolyser that can store renewable energy in a battery and produce green hydrogen to be used in power stations. It can potentially play an important role in Europe's quest for emissions-free energy.
If Europe is to meet ambitious 2050 net zero emissions targets renewable energy will play a crucial role, and central to that will be clean technologies. A Dutch company has produced an electrolyser that stores renewable energy in a battery to generate emmissions-free electricity. Maarten van Heel, Director, Projects and Engineering of Battolyser Systems explains how it works:
"The Battolyser® is an electrolyser that is 100 percent flexible. It can unlock 100 percent green hydrogen. It works in taking power from renewable energy sources and using that, together with water, to split it into hydrogen and oxygen.
“When producing hydrogen, it can at any time stop producing hydrogen and, in doing so, can follow the intermittency in the power profiles, which of course, in the energy system of the future, using a lot of renewables, will be very volatile.”
Green v grey hydrogen
“Hydrogen is already used a lot in industry nowadays," Maarten van Heel continues. "That is called grey hydrogen, hydrogen that is produced using natural gas and therefore also emitting CO2.
“The sectors that are already using grey hydrogen at the moment, you can think about chemical companies, refineries etcetera, and those companies can use the Battolyser® to replace their grey hydrogen with green hydrogen, as well as sectors that are hard to electrify. As well as, for example, for mobility, think about heavy transport, and shipping.
“We’re based in the Netherlands, so the first roll-out of our one-megawatt unit will be here in the Netherlands. And currently, we’re talking to customers across Europe to roll-out our future, 2.5 megawatt products.”