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Commonly known is the ever-increasing need to transport energy from north to south within Germany. The rapidly expanding renewable energy generation capacities from wind in the North Sea and the onshoring of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or hydrogen at German seaports – whether as an international import or generated offshore – are further increasing this need.
While German economy minister Robert Habeck is busy visiting Qatar and Norway in a bid to ease Germany’s dependence on Russian energy supplies, representatives from the Italian government are heading for Algeria, Angola and the Republic of Congo. The German administration, it would seem, still continues to undervalue Africa, both as a potential supplier of natural gas and a partner for new hydrogen projects.
Currently they run on heavy fuel oil – a substance that is more reminiscent of tar than vehicle fuel. It’s the residue that remains after various crude oil distillation processes have been carried out. While the more volatile fractions such as kerosene, gasoline, diesel and household fuel oil are separated off for other uses, the large, robust two-stroke engines of ocean-going giants make do with the leftover black sludge which is so viscous it needs to be heated up before it can be combusted. The changeover to fuels like liquefied natural gas, LNG, has already begun but this in itself won’t be enough. That’s why an increasing number of industry players are looking to hydrogen and are now making initial attempts to embed this fueling option in seagoing vessels.
The search for alternatives to Russian natural gas is in full swing. Even before the march into Ukraine, some stakeholders had been advocating the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the USA – as an alternative to Nord Stream 2. However, since the US exports gas obtained by fracking, which...
Rotterdam is not only the largest port in Europe, it is playing a key role in the German hydrogen strategy. Stijn van Els has been working since January 2020 as director of commercial delivery at the port, which belongs 70 percent to the municipality of Rotterdam and 30 percent to the Netherlands. After studying at a German Hochschule, van Els studied physics in Delft and then started as an engineer at Shell. He’s been working around the world for 30 -years and in Hamburg as head of Shell Germany. H2-international spoke with him about the role of the port for the European hydrogen economy.
