Air Liquide To Develop Renewable Hydrogen Project In Belgium

Air Liquide has been awarded a grant of US$115 million from the European Innovation Fund for its Enhance project in the port of Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium, that aims to produce and distribute low-carbon and renewable hydrogen derived from ammonia. As part of the project, Air Liquide intends to build, own, and operate a first-of-its-kind large scale renewable ammonia cracking plant and a hydrogen liquefier. Enhance is the first European industrial-scale project for the production and distribution of low-carbon and renewable hydrogen using ammonia as a feedstock.

Air Liquide intends to retrofit one of its hydrogen production units located in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, using renewable ammonia as a feedstock instead of natural gas, and would also build a hydrogen liquefier. This new facility would support the development of a low-carbon and renewable hydrogen supply chain in Europe and contribute to the decarbonization of a wide range of hard-to-abate customers, such as refineries, chemicals, as well as heavy duty road, maritime transport, and aviation. Replacing natural gas by ammonia to produce gaseous and liquid hydrogen would allow the project to reduce the CO₂ emissions by more than 300,000 tonnes per year.

Ammonia, a molecule made of hydrogen and nitrogen, can notably be produced with a low-carbon footprint in geographies with abundant renewable energy sources such as sun, water, and wind, or other low-carbon source of energy. A global supply chain infrastructure is already in place for its production, transportation, and utilization at large scale, serving various industries.

The European Innovation Fund is one of the world’s largest programs for promoting innovative low-carbon technologies. According to Air Liquide, receiving this funding is an essential milestone in making a final investment decision and starting the execution of this project.