Sealhyfe Powers Up the Future with First-Ever Offshore Green Hydrogen Harvest

France: Lhyfe, a major player in the green and renewable Hydrogen sector, has announced a significant breakthrough with its offshore Hydrogen production pilot, Sealhyfe. The pilot has started producing offshore Hydrogen, marking a crucial milestone for the industry. The SEM-REV power hub has successfully connected with Sealhyfe, which was towed 20 kilometers out into the Atlantic. This achievement underlines Lhyfe's ability to deliver tangible improvements in the Hydrogen industry swiftly. The launch of the world's first offshore Hydrogen production pilot project is designed to demonstrate the technical feasibility of this kind of initiative and to gain operational experience to facilitate rapid scaling up.

The company made a bold decision to subject their creation, Sealhyfe, to the most challenging conditions. To carry out realistic testing, the platform will be positioned on a re-engineered floating structure, specifically the WAVEGEM platform by GEPS Techno, designed to improve stability for offshore production. The SEM-REV offshore testing hub of Central Nantes, operated by the OPEN-C Foundation, which is also connected with a floating wind turbine (FLOATGEN, developed and managed by BW Ideol), is involved in the process. Lhyfe and its partners managed to develop and assemble all the necessary technology for offshore hydrogen production, including the 1 MW electrolyser provided by Plug, in a mere 16 months.

The Sealhyfe platform, covering less than 200 sq.m. area, has the potential to produce up to 400kg of Hydrogen per day. Sealhyfe was moored at the Quai des Fregates in the Port of Saint-Nazaire between September 2022 and May 2023. During this time, Lhyfe and its partners conducted multiple start-up tests to gain the necessary knowledge and confidence to move on to the second phase of the project. These trials were conducted with the aim of achieving maximum output.

After the successful first phase, Lhyfe has updated its specifications for all its sites, both onshore and offshore, to take advantage of the valuable expertise gained. All Lhyfe units will benefit from the advanced operating optimizations tested during this trial. Sealhyfe was transported to the SEM-REV offshore testing site on May 19th. This site is situated 20 km away from the coast of Le Croisic in France. It was then connected to the subsea hub at the site via a dedicated umbilical cable designed specifically for Hydrogen use. Within just 48 hours, the system was restarted and up and running. Lhyfe will now perform repeated tests previously done at the quay to ensure comparable results and then move on to additional offshore-specific trials.

Lhyfe, in pursuit of a reliable means of offshore Hydrogen production in isolated environments, is developing a unique operating capability that involves managing platform movements, environmental stresses, and software and algorithms for validating green and renewable Hydrogen production. As a follow-up to the initial stage, Lhyfe announced the acceptance of the HOPE project by the European Commission, which they are coordinating with nine partners under the European Clean Hydrogen Partnership. The project has been awarded a €20 million grant, enabling Lhyfe and its partners to gear up for commercialization. The project, with an unprecedented scale of 10 MW, can produce up to four tonnes of green Hydrogen daily at sea, which will be exported ashore via pipeline and delivered compressed to customers.

Lhyfe aims to validate industrial solutions in offshore Hydrogen production through two ground-breaking projects. These solutions will be submitted to various governments in response to future calls for projects, with the objective of achieving the European Commission's target of 10 million tonnes of clean Hydrogen produced in the European Union by 2030 as part of the REPowerEU plan. To accomplish this goal, Lhyfe has partnered with wind turbine developers and offshore power specialists, including EDPR, Centrica, and Capital Energy.