Read more about North Sea Port’s various strengths below
Ready for large-scale local demand, local sustainable production and imports
Over the coming years, the demand for hydrogen, especially green hydrogen, from industry will steadily increase. The hydrogen currently produced and consumed in North Sea Port is grey hydrogen. This hydrogen is produced from natural gas, resulting in CO2 emissions. By 2050, CO2 emissions need to be drastically reduced and local industrial demand alone will increase from the current 580 kt to over 1100 kt.
In order to make significant progress by 2030, large-scale efforts are being made to capture, transport and store CO2 (Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)). The CO2 will be transported by ship and stored in empty gas fields at sea. Applying this technique to existing and new hydrogen plants will turn so-called grey hydrogen into low-CO2 blue hydrogen. The first companies will start using this technology around 2025-2026.
In parallel to this will be the production of entirely green hydrogen by substituting natural gas with green electricity and water. By means of electrolysis, this technology produces so-called green hydrogen, without CO2 emissions. By 2025, several green hydrogen production plants will have been built, totalling more than 500 MW. After 2025, there will be a rapid upscaling to an installed capacity of about 2 GW by 2030.
All this renewable hydrogen will not be sufficient for the huge demand in North Sea Port and its hinterland – imports will also be required. The potential for hydrogen imports through North Sea Port is estimated at up to 6 Mton per year by 2050. Hydrogen will be imported by ship in various forms, with ammonia looking very promising for North Sea Port. Ammonia can be used directly as a feedstock or fuel and can also be converted back into hydrogen. Moreover, the port already has storage tanks that can be used for imports. Concrete projects are under development in North Sea Port with the aim of importing the first sustainable hydrogen in this form as early as 2025.
Green power and electricity infrastructure
Making green hydrogen requires large amounts of green electricity. North Sea Port is already very well placed in this regard, since there is already a lot of green power available in the port area: 500 MW of solar and wind power. In addition, wind farms off the coast of Zeeland with a combined capacity of 1.5 GW land their power in North Sea Port. Landing power from additional offshore wind projects in North Sea Port will enable green hydrogen to be produced directly. There is sufficient space available for this in the port area. The Dutch government plans to land at least an additional 4 GW at Borssele by 2030. In Belgium, 2.3 GW of wind power is landed in Zeebrugge. This green electricity is desperately needed to produce the required hydrogen.
The presence of the high-voltage network (380 kV) in Borssele and Ghent (Rodenhuize) will enable large quantities of electricity to be supplied to future hydrogen plants. Investments by grid operators TenneT and Elia will be necessary to enable increasingly large-scale production of green hydrogen.
Unique cross-border pipeline network and strong hinterland connections
In order to transport hydrogen by pipeline, a complete cross-border network is being built in the port area. Dutch company Gasunie and Belgian company Fluxys aim to have the infrastructure ready for users by 2026, with support from industry and government. This will serve to match supply with demand. For this network, existing pipelines are being reused where possible and new pipelines constructed where necessary. This open-access hydrogen infrastructure in North Sea Port will be part of the national hydrogen networks operated by Gasunie and Fluxys.
Thanks to its unique location, North Sea Port will grow to become a hydrogen hub, linking key transport arteries in Belgium (Zeebrugge-Antwerp) and the Netherlands (Rotterdam-Chemelot). More than that, the envisaged pipeline infrastructure will unlock a large European hinterland, connecting other industry clusters and ports. Along with the hinterland links by rail, inland waterway and road, this will facilitate North Sea Port’s growth into a hydrogen hub on a European scale, anchoring employment and added value in the long term and providing scope for new activity and investment.