Shell and partners to ship green hydrogen from Portugal to the Netherlands

A consortium led by oil supermajor Shell plans to transport 100 mt/day of liquified hydrogen (LH2) produced in Portugal’s Sines to the Netherlands’ Rotterdam by 2027.

PHOTO: Under the H2Sines.RDAM project the consortium aims to transport Portuguese hydrogen to the Netherlands. Anthony Veder

The hydrogen will be produced with renewable energy in the industrial zone in Sines port, before being liquified and transported on liquified hydrogen carriers to Rotterdam for further distribution and sale.

They will initially conduct a feasibility study on hydrogen production, liquification and shipping between Portugal and the Netherlands under the H2Sines.RDAM project.

Other than Shell, the consortium is made up of French utility firm Engie, Dutch tank storage company Vopak and gas shipping firm Anthony Veder.

In a recent study, shipping classification society DNV forecasted that hydrogen will make up only 0.50% of the energy mix by 2030 and 5% by 2050. It said hydrogen uptake needs to be three times as much as that, at 15%, by 2050 to reach the Paris Agreement target of keeping global warming within 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

The study pointed to limited shipping capacity for hydrogen as a bottleneck to scaling its distribution and use. Shipping it can be costly and complicated, partly as it needs to be regasified from a cryogenic liquid form at its destination.

Earlier this year, Australia became the first nation to export 1,250 cbm of liquified hydrogen to Kobe, Japan. The hydrogen was transported on the Suiso Frontier.