The MULTIPLHY project – “Multi-megawatt high-temperature electrolyser to generate green hydrogen for the production of high-quality biofuels” has recently been launched at Neste’s renewable products refinery in Rotterdam. The project involves renewable products specialist Neste, worlds’s leading provider of renewable diesel and renewable jet fuel, and as key technology partners the French research organisation CEA, plant builder Paul Wurth, the energy utility ENGIE and the cleantech company Sunfire. The consortium will install, integrate and operate the world’s first high-temperature electrolyser (HTE) system in multi-megawatt-scale. The project consortium led by CEA, as project coordinator, is part of the EU Horizon 2020 FCH2-JU program with an overall funding of EUR 6.9 million.
MULTIPLHY marks the first demonstration of an HTE in an industrial refining process with a nominal power input of 2.6 MW and a hydrogen production capacity of 60 kg/h reaching an electrical efficiency of up to 85% AC to LHV H2.
By the end of 2024, the electrolyser is expected to have been in operation for 16,000 hours or more, producing a total of around 960 tonnes of green hydrogen while avoiding approximately 8,000 tonnes of GHG emissions. The project supports the most promising Carbon Direct Avoidance (CDA) approach by substituting “grey” hydrogen currently generated via steam-methane reforming (SMR) by certified green hydrogen.
