Bilfinger : and Hydrogenious become partners to enable safe and efficient hydrogen transport

October 13, 2021

• Strategic partnership for industrial scaling of Hydrogenious' LOHC plant systems
• Joint large-volume hydrogen projects to be realised

International industrial services provider Bilfinger and LOHC market pioneer Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies ("Hydrogenious LOHC") are entering into a strategic partnership and pooling their complementary expertise. The companies aim to make green hydrogen commercially available on a large scale in Europe by offering a turnkey, stationary Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) plant infrastructure based on Hydrogenious' proprietary technology. For the owners or operators of these systems of hydrogen storage and hydrogen release facilities, the partners aim to provide one-stop services in engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) and maintenance.

"As long-term partners at equal level, we want to contribute to further advancing the energy transition," says Christina Johansson, Interim CEO and CFO of Bilfinger. "Green hydrogen plays a crucial role as a sustainable energy source for our customers and for European countries to achieve their climate goals. With the appropriate scaling, Hydrogenious' LOHC technology can become a game-changing solution for this."

"With Bilfinger, we are gaining our partner of choice for the turnkey construction of large-scale LOHC plants with comprehensive expertise in engineering, installation and maintenance," says Dr Daniel Teichmann, founder and CEO of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies. "Our partnership positions us perfectly for the market ramp-up in the hydrogen economy. By further improving the competitiveness of our technology through scale-up and standardisation, all players in the future green hydrogen value chains will benefit."

For the flexible transport of hydrogen, Hydrogenious' LOHC technology is both an efficient and safe solution: In its storage plants, the hydrogen is chemically bonded to the LOHC material benzyltoluene, a thermal oil. This carrier oil can be transported under ambient conditions in conventional and existing logistics infrastructures comparable to the delivery of e.g. petroleum or diesel. Once at the hydrogen consumer, the hydrogen is released from the LOHC in Hydrogenious' release plants (in the appropriate purity as required), while the carrier material is reused many hundreds of times in the cycle. Thus, the Hydrogenious LOHC technology has significant advantages over other technologies for transporting hydrogen.

Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies had shipped its first LOHC storage and release facilities for commercial use to the US in 2018. A demonstration plant was previously in operation at Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart. Construction of an industrial-scale LOHC storage plant at Chempark Dormagen (North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne) is scheduled to begin in 2023/2024 - at the same time the world's largest facility of this kind (hydrogen storage in LOHC: approx. 1,800 tonnes per year). For the construction of the plant, Bilfinger is providing services in the areas of basic engineering, civil engineering and support in applying for permits at the chemical park.