Air Liquide specialises in industrial gas and will launch a high-capacity electrolyser to produce renewable, low-carbon hydrogen in 2026. The facility will help local manufacturers lower their emissions and promote green hydrogen production in France. This isn’t the first time that the French group has blazed a trail: it fitted a one-of-a-kind carbon capture unit at its Port-Jérôme hydrogen plant back in 2015…

The biggest green hydrogen plant in France

Air Liquide
Air Liquide Normand'Hy

With Normand’Hy, Air Liquide is thinking big. And sticking with Normandy. The group has been running the project since 2020 with the aim to launch a 200MW electrolyser to produce renewable, low-carbon hydrogen at the Port-Jérôme site in 2026. It will use Siemens Energy’s PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) technology. “It’s far more flexible than regular alkaline technology and is very well-suited to supplying renewable energy, which is intermittent by nature,” says Stéphane Vialet, Director of Energy Transition Projects in South West Europe for Air Liquide

It can produce 28,000 tons of renewable or low-carbon hydrogen per year and will be the biggest factory of its kind in France – and one of the biggest in the world. The green hydrogen it produces will partly substitute and top up the hydrogen the group produces in Normandy, but without the 250,000 tons of CO2 emissions every year. 

Learn How Air Liquide Normand’Hy produces green and low-carbon hydrogen in Normandy

Hydrogen is mainly produced by natural gas reforming. But the process emits greenhouse gases (CO2). Renewable hydrogen is produced through the electrolysis of water using renewable electricity from wind farms or solar parks. “That means we can use power purchase agreements with producers,” says Stéphane Vialet. But renewable energy is intermittent by nature; it isn’t constantly produced and isn’t always available. Which is why the Normand’Hy project will see Air Liquide use the low-carbon electricity network in France. In this case, the resulting hydrogen is “low-carbon” hydrogen.

Energy industry in Normandy

Normandy, the biggest hydrogen-using region in France

There’s a good reason why Air Liquide chose Normandy as their base. The region’s refining, chemicals and aerospace industries mean it still accounts for a third of France’s hydrogen consumption (350,000 tons per year, approx. 38%). Especially in the Le Havre area where two of the biggest refineries in France, Exxon Mobil and TotalEnergies, use the gas to remove sulphur from crude oil. 

Normandy is like the Silicon Valley of hydrogen: there's nowhere else in France with such a high number of consumers and producers.

A world first back in 2015

Air Liquide, one of the world leaders in industrial gas and technology, first came to the region in the 1970s to produce oxygen and nitrogen. It also has two hydrogen plants in Gonfreville and Port-Jérôme. The two sites are connected to Air Liquide’s hydrogen network in Normandy, the same network that the new electrolyser will be hooked up to.

Back in 2015, the French group launched an innovation for CO2 capture that is unique in the world, using a cryogenic process (CryopcapTM) to decarbonise its hydrogen production.

Normandy is a technological showcase for the Air Liquide group. We've rolled out our CryocapTM technology here and now we're setting up a next-generation electrolyser to produce renewable hydrogen here. It will be another world first.

Plus… a hub project for CO2 capture in Normandy

With the support of HAROPA PORT, 5 Le Havre businesses including Air Liquide (with LAT Nitrogen, Exxon Mobil, TotalEnergies and Yara International) are developing a new CO2 capture and storage facility. The idea is to collect, liquefy and ship up to 3 million tons of CO2 a year to a carbon sink in the North Sea. The project will help make Le Havre’s port area into one of the biggest low-carbon industrial estates.

Decarbonise the industry and fuel hydrogen mobility

Air Liquide wants to help local manufacturers to lower their emissions with Normand’Hy. 

The group also wants to fulfil increasing demand for hydrogen mobility. Normandy is leagues ahead in the field (first network of charging points and hydrogen vehicles in France, first hydrogen buses in Rouen), with the added bonus of being close to the Paris area where there are already two fleets of hydrogen-powered taxis. 

The Normand’Hy project in figures

  • A 200MW electrolyser to produce 28,000 tons of green hydrogen and cut out 250,000 tons of C02 per year.
  • Normand’Hy is an investment worth over 400 M€ for Air Liquide, which will receive 190 M€ in grants as part of the Hy2Use IPCEI (Important Projects of Common European Interest). In line with the government’s green hydrogen strategy, the project also receives government funding as part of the France 2030 campaign.
  • The new plant is scheduled to launch in 2026. Air Liquide plans to recruit dozens of people to work at the plant by 2025, ranging from technicians to engineers.
  • The plant will occupy 11ha of a 29ha plot owned by Air Liquide at the Port-Jérôme business park. The rest of the land will partly be used to off-set wetlands.

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