Repsol-Enagas Renewable H2 Project Gets EC’s Financial Backing

Spanish energy companies Repsol and Enagas have received the European Commission’s financial support to execute their joint renewable hydrogen production project from photoelectrocatalysis in their Puertollano Industrial Complex.

An operational pilot plant is already in production at the Repsol Technology Lab research center, located in Móstoles, Spain.

The project combines technology, decarbonization and circular economy, creation of quality employment, and territorial balance. The Puertollano plant could be operational in 2024 and is expected to produce around 100 kg of hydrogen per day from sunlight. The new facility, in addition to internal consumption, will supply the new hydrogenerators that Repsol plans to install in the near future and which will be used to feed fuel cells for buses and trucks.

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Further, the 100% renewable oxygen that will also be produced by the plant will be used in other facilities of the Repsol Industrial Complex in Puertollano, specifically, in the sulfur recovery plant, thus advancing in the decarbonization of its industrial processes.

In the field of renewable gases and decarbonisation, Enagás is promoting 55 specific projects throughout Spain (34 green hydrogen projects and 21 biomethane projects) together with more than 60 partners, which are expected to mobilize a total joint investment of 6,300 million euros.

Aligned with the decarbonisation objectives, Repsol has 31 projects, with a total associated investment of 6,359 million euros, within the framework of the calls for expressions of interest for European Next Generation funds carried out by the Spanish government. These projects are spread across renewable hydrogen, circular economy, renewable generation and storage, distributed energy and electric mobility, digital transformation in the industrial field and the transformation of the energy value chain through artificial intelligence and data economy.

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The Puertollano plant will have a dual system, that is, it will be able to generate hydrogen from sunlight up to 100 kg per day and will increase its production by 450 kg per day of hydrogen from its connection to the electricity grid. In total, the global capacity of the plant will be 200 tons of hydrogen per year.

In addition to this initiative, Repsol and Enagás are jointly promoting large-scale projects such as the Hydrogen Valley of Catalonia, a macro-project with the Rovira i Virgili University, in which more than 100 institutional and business agents participate.

Last May, Repsol announced an investment of 150 million euros for two renewable hydrogen production initiatives in the Puertollano Industrial Complex. The company aims to reach net zero emissions by 2050.  Enagás states that it has reduced its carbon footprint by 63% since 2014, thus advancing its goal of being a carbon neutral company by 2040, or even earlier.

The European Commission’s Innovation Fund program provides funding for the most innovative projects for the development of low-carbon technologies that are at a stage close to the pre-commercial scale. Of the more than 230 projects presented to the European office, the commission will finance 32, of which two have been presented by Repsol.