[Haichuan Hydrogen Energy] The world’s first offshore hydrogen production project has begun producing its first batch of green hydrogen

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As reported by Offshore Wind Energy Network on June 27, Lhyfe is testing its Sealhyfe offshore hydrogen production platform in France. After the platform was towed to the SEMV-REV offshore test site, where it is connected to BW Ideol’s floating wind turbine Floatgen, it began producing its first batch of hydrogen on June 20. Sealhyfe is expected to be able to produce up to 400 kilograms of hydrogen per day. Starting in September 2022, after eight months of testing at a terminal in Port Saint-Nazaire, the platform has entered the second phase of testing with the arrival of the commissioning milestone, focusing on hydrogen production under marine conditions. Sealhyfe includes a 1-megawatt electrolyzer provided by Plug, installed on the WAVEGEM floating platform from GEPS Techno, which has been redesigned to stabilize offshore production units. During the eight months of testing at the port, the platform underwent benchmarking as well as technical and system optimizations. Through the trials in the first phase, Lhyfe also developed the remote management website software and algorithm building modules required to enable Sealhyfe to operate entirely autonomously. The company stated that after the first testing phase, it has updated the operating procedures for all land and sea stations, and all equipment will benefit from the operational optimizations resulting from the Sealhyfe pilot project. At the SEM-REV offshore test site at Centrale Nantes, Sealhyfe, operated by the OPEN-C foundation and located in the Atlantic 20 kilometers off the French coast, is connected to the underwater hub of this test site via an umbilical cable designed specifically for hydrogen applications. According to Lhyfe, once the platform was connected to a hub, the system was restarted and put into use within just 48 hours. The company will now conduct multiple tests at the dock in order to compare the results, followed by additional tests specific to sea conditions. To achieve reliable hydrogen production in marine environments, Lhyfe plans to develop operational capabilities that include managing the operation of the platform and environmental pressures, as well as validating software and algorithms for the production of green and renewable hydrogen.