Air Liquide has been awarded a grant of €110 million from the European Innovation Fund for its Enhance project in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Belgium, that aims to produce and distribute low-carbon and renewable hydrogen derived from ammonia.
Air Liquide intends to build, own and operate a first-of-its-kind large scale renewable ammonia cracking plant and an innovative hydrogen liquefier.
As part of this initiative, Air Liquide intends to retrofit one of its hydrogen production units located in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, using renewable ammonia as a feedstock instead of natural gas, and would also build a hydrogen liquefier. This new facility would support the development of a low-carbon and renewable hydrogen supply chain in Europe and contribute to the decarbonisation of a wide range of hard-to-abate customers, such as refineries, chemicals, as well as heavy duty road, maritime transport and aviation. Replacing natural gas by ammonia to produce gaseous and liquid hydrogen would allow the project to reduce the CO₂ emissions by more than 300,000 tonnes per year.
Armelle Levieux, member of the executive committee of Air Liquide, says: ‘The combination of ammonia cracking and hydrogen liquefaction technologies offers an additional solution to support the growth of the global hydrogen market. We welcome the support from the European Commission for our Enhance project, which contributes to the emergence of a viable infrastructure for the supply of renewable and low-carbon hydrogen in Europe.’
