In South Bavaria, Germany, we are building the first LOHC hub in Central Europe with a hydrogen release capacity of up to 1,800 tonnes per year. This hub will supply industrial offtakers in the Danube region and beyond by 2028. We also aim to inject parts of the released hydrogen into local pipeline networks such as the HyPipe Bavaria to enable even more national industries with access to clean hydrogen. Later, this scope can be expanded to a national and international level by utilizing the advanced pipeline network connections to the German hydrogen core network and the European Hydrogen Backbone.

LOHC Link: world’s first industrial-scale LOHC value chain

For stable and continuous access to clean hydrogen, Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube is supplied by Project Hector, located in Cologne, Germany, where green hydrogen is produced as an industrial by-product. Additionally, up to 160 tonnes of green hydrogen per year will be supplied by two StorageBOXES coupled with electrolysis located in Bavaria. Together Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube and Project Hector form LOHC Link, a unified, comprehensive green hydrogen value chain based on LOHC technology. LOHC Link creates a seamless and efficient system for hydrogen storage, transportation, and utilization. This synergy enables a scalable and sustainable infrastructure to support the decarbonization of energy systems across Europe and beyond.

After successfully completing an industrial-scale LOHC value chain, we envision to kick-off a follow-up project to unlock the high potential of renewable energy sources in Southeastern Europe. Countries like Romania, Hungary or Bulgaria are capable of producing large volumes of clean hydrogen cost-efficiently. The river Danube, the second-largest river in Europe connecting Eastern and Central Europe, offers best conditions for building up pan-European industrial-scale hydrogen supply chains based on LOHC. Today, chemical and petrochemical products account for around a quarter of all goods transported on the river Danube. In the future, this existing infrastructure for liquid fuels can be leveraged with minimal effort to supply energy demanding regions in central Europe using LOHC. The unique safe characteristics of LOHC make it perfect for hydrogen transport via barge, which other transport options such as ammonia or liquified hydrogen are not capable of.