Air Liquide and TotalEnergies join together to produce low-carbon hydrogen in Normandy

France – Air Liquide and TotalEnergies have teamed up to decarbonize hydrogen production at TotalEnergies’ Normandy facility in France.

This project will enable Air Liquide to offer low-carbon hydrogen to TotalEnergies in the future by using Air Liquide’s hydrogen network in Normandy and implementing a large-scale CO2 capture and storage system (CCS).

In line with both companies’ goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, this ambitious project is part of a sustainable development strategy that will aid in the development of a low-carbon hydrogen ecosystem in the “Axe Seine/Normandy,” supported gradually by technologies such as carbon capture and storage and electrolysis.

Reducing Carbon Emissions

Air Liquide will take over and run the 255 tons per day hydrogen production unit at the TotalEnergies platform in Normandy under a long-term contract deal. By connecting the unit to Air Liquide’s hydrogen network, the unit’s performance can be optimized and the world’s first low-carbon hydrogen network can be developed.

Since 2015, the network has included a hydrogen production facility in Port-Jérôme that has been equipped with Air Liquide’s CryocapTM carbon capture technology. Air Liquide is proposing the addition of a large-scale electrolysis machine for the production of renewable hydrogen.

CCS in Normandy

Additionally, the businesses will conduct feasibility studies for the deployment of a carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at the Normandy platform to decarbonize the hydrogen produced in this unit. Air Liquide would deploy its CryocapTM method to capture CO2, while TotalEnergies would manage the captured CO2’s transportation and storage, notably through the Northern Lights (Norway) and Aramis (Netherlands) CCS projects now under development in the North Sea.

In the long term, adoption of these initiatives would result in a reduction of roughly 650,000 tons of CO2 per year from the unit’s hydrogen output by 2030.

Decarbonizing the Normandy Industrial Basin

Air Liquide and TotalEnergies are cooperating to assist decarbonize industrial operations in the “Axe Seine/Normandy” region. The partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2021 with additional industrial businesses to create carbon capture and storage infrastructure in Normandy with the aim of decreasing CO2 emissions by up to 3 million tons per year by 2030.