Trafigura Takes Stake in German Hydrogen Producer

Global energy commodities trader Trafigura has taken a stake in German Hy2gen AG, a Stuttgart-based start-up focused on developing green hydrogen production facilities.

Hy2gen did not reveal the level of Trafigura’s investment, but it did say the trader would join its board of directors and give the fledgling company heightened business development capabilities and support the development of new production sites.

Hy2gen’s model is to develop, build and operate plants that produce green hydrogen and hydrogen-based e-fuels, providing a path to achieve CO₂-free or CO₂ neutral fuels and storage solutions. Its first plant will be built in the Canadian province of Quebec in 2020, with others to follow in France, Mexico, Norway and South Africa.

The Quebec plant will be a joint venture of Hy2gen’s Canadian subsidiary, Hy2gen Canada, and Greenfield Global, Canada’s largest ethanol producer. The 30 MW plant – scalable to 80 MW – will be built adjacent to Greenfield’s existing biorefinery in Varennes, Quebec, and will produce green hydrogen, biomethane and biomethanol.

Including the Canadian plant, Hy2gen has a project pipeline consisting of over 500 MW of electrolyser capacity, which would produce more than 74,000 tons of CO₂-free hydrogen annually from renewable energies. That represents an annual saving of 810,000 tons of CO₂ compared with conventional hydrogen production technologies.

“We are focusing on large-scale production facilities as price is an important factor for green hydrogen to become a tradable commodity,” Hy2gen CEO Cyril Dufau-Sansot said. “As this happens we will be well positioned to grow quickly alongside anticipated commercial demand.”