Pursuing the development of its low-carbon hydrogen ecosystem in France’s Normandy industrial basin, Air Liquide will invest 50 million euros in a new hydrogen packaging and delivery supply chain to refueling stations along the Seine Axis, to support the acceleration of low-carbon mobility.
The new packaging site will be supplied with renewable hydrogen from the Air Liquide Normand’Hy electrolyzer with a capacity of 200 MW currently under construction. This investment will contribute to the decarbonization of industry and mobility in the Normandy and Ile-de-France regions.
The establishment of this supply chain will support the growing number of hydrogen vehicles along the Seine Axis, running along the Seine River corridor from Le Havre to the Ile-de-France. This concerns both intensive mobility such as hydrogen taxis, which are expected to triple in number between 2023 and the end of 2024, and corporate fleets of light utility vehicles, as well as heavy mobility with hydrogen buses and trucks.
Leveraging notably on long-term partnerships, including a contract to supply renewable hydrogen to HysetCo’s fleet of vehicles, Air Liquide will dedicate around a quarter of the production capacity of its Air Liquide Normand’Hy electrolyzer to supplying renewable hydrogen for decarbonized transportation along the Seine Axis. This is equivalent to the consumption of 500 hydrogen trucks or 10,000 light vehicles.
As previously announced, the other three-quarters of Air Liquide Normand’Hy’s production capacity is intended to supply renewable and low carbon hydrogen to customers in the Normandy industrial basin, including the TotalEnergies refinery in Gonfreville. Air Liquide’s hydrogen network in Normandy already includes two hydrogen production units: the one at the TotalEnergies refinery in Gonfreville and another at Port-Jérôme, where the group installed its CO2 capture solution Cryocap in 2015.
“Leveraging the capacities of the future Air Liquide Normand’Hy electrolyzer, this investment in the renewable hydrogen supply chain constitutes a concrete and decisive step forward in favor of low-carbon transportation around the Seine Axis,” says Emilie Mouren-Renouard, a member of Air Liquide’s Executive Committee. “It reinforces Air Liquide’s positioning across the entire renewable and low-carbon hydrogen value chain, a key component of the energy transition, from production to packaging and transportation to delivery points. With this new project, the group confirms its commitment to fostering ecosystems that contribute to the transition toward a low-carbon society.”
