Gazprom creates subsidiary for hydrogen projects, mulls initiatives

MOSCOW, Dec 2 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has created a subsidiary Gazprom Vodorod (Hydrogen) for hydrogen power generation projects, and it is already considering pilot initiatives, Alexander Ishkov, head of Gazprom’s energy saving and ecology department, said in a conference late on Tuesday.

“I would like to say that we are not only discussing these issues now, we’ve created a special organization within Gazprom with the functions, which is called Gazprom Vodorod. We are inviting everyone to cooperate with the organization,” he said.

He also named some pilot initiatives of the company.

“One of these options is construction of a large plant for methane pyrolysis at the exit point of the Nord Stream pipeline (in Germany). The carbon footprint here will stand at 1.2–1.6 kilogram CO2 per kilogram of hydrocarbon. This is almost three times lower that the E.U. threshold for low-carbon hydrogen,” he said.

“There is another project, which I think no one has discussed yet, but the mining university and others could have done it. It is about analysis of possibilities of reversing CO2 transportation to Russia to get hydrogen through cheap traditional methods like methane conversion. We could transfer CO2 back to Russia for disposal or storage using the existing infrastructure.”

The latter project has not been calculated yet, but it should provide cheaper hydrogen for the E.U. without spending on infrastructure for electrolysis and renewable power generation. Currently, Gazprom produces around 360,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year, and it is ready to export up to 10,000 tonnes of hydrogen starting from 2021 if the customers have technologies for gas transportation, he said..

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