PARIS (Reuters) – TotalEnergies announced a call for tenders for the annual production of 500,000 tonnes of “green” hydrogen on Thursday, as part of the French oil major’s plans to decarbonise its European refineries.
Its emissions reduction plan is to use green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy, to completely replace “grey” hydrogen in its carbon intensive industrial activities.
TotalEnergies said the transition to green hydrogen would reduce emissions by around five million metric tons of CO2 per year from its refineries in Europe, including its three oil refineries and two biorefineries in France.
The call for tenders will complement other smaller, local projects, it added.
The group also announced an agreement with Air Liquide to supply the Gonfreville refining platform with up to 15,000 tonnes of green and other low-carbon hydrogen, which is expected to reduce 150,000 metric tons of carbon emissions annually.
“We need electrolyzers in massive quantities. This is also the purpose of this call for tenders: to give a boost to this sector,” Jean-Marc Durand, director of petrochemical refining in Europe at TotalEnergies, told journalists during a presentation.
“We talk a lot about green hydrogen, but at some point, players like us need to commit to getting these sectors off the ground via massive calls for tender. There needs to be an effect of scale. Ihat’s what this work is all about,” he added. The group is also banking on various regulations and incentives in Europe to obtain “competitive” prices, as green hydrogen normally costs two to three times as much as grey hydrogen, Sébastien Bruna, director of hydrogen in the refining branch of TotalEnergies, said.
European Union lawmakers gave their final approval this week to legally binding targets to expand renewable energy faster this decade, part of which gave a concession to France for nuclear power to be considered in the production of hydrogen.
(Reporting by Forrest Crellin and Benjamin Mallet; Editing by Alexander Smith)
