Page 166 - CW E-Magazine (1-7-2025)

News from Abroad

RENEWABLE ENERGY

Orlen secures over €390-mn for clean hydrogen

projects

Green H2 and Hydrogen Eagle – energy sources and municipal waste,
two strategic programmes of Polish utilising waste-to-hydrogen techno-
energy major, Orlen Group – have logy. In addition to reinforcing European
received a total of PLN 1.7-bn (over hydrogen infrastructure, Hydrogen
€390-mn) in non-repayable funding Eagle will contribute to reducing carbon
under the National Recovery Plan. The dioxide emissions and advancing the
grant support will be used to produce development of renewable energy
renewable hydrogen via electrolysis sources.
powered by renewable energy sources,
as well as low-emission hydrogen Green H2 is a project led by Lotos
derived from municipal waste. its electrolysis-based hydrogen pro- Green H2, a special-purpose vehicle
duction portfolio to a total capacity of within the Orlen Group, focused on
“The funding from the National approximately 0.9-GW, with around producing renewable hydrogen for use
Recovery Plan will enable us to expand 0.7-GW to be developed in Poland. in refinery operations at the Gdańsk
and scale up hydrogen production infra- The remaining demand is expected to fuel production site. The project in-
structure more efficiently, reinforcing be met through imports of hydrogen volves the installation of a 100-MW
both the domestic and European hydro- or its derivatives via maritime routes, electrolyser integrated with an energy
gen supply networks. It also supports contingent on the availability of import storage system. Recently, the corporate
the advancement of this future-oriented infrastructure. venture capital fund Orlen VC invested
technology, which represents one of the in Hystar, a manufacturer of PEM
key pathways to decarbonisation,” said Hydrogen Eagle is a capital invest- electrolysers for large-scale zero-
Ireneusz Fąfara, President of the ment programme of the Orlen Group emission hydrogen production. The
Management Board and CEO of Orlen. aimed at developing diversified sources investment will provide technological
of renewable and low-emission hydrogen. support for the Group’s hydrogen
By 2035, the Group aims to expand Production will rely on both renewable initiatives.

Zeon sets up research facility to develop plant-based

rubber raw materials

Japan’s Zeon Corporation has con- rubber,” a project jointly carried out by
structed a new research facility on the Zeon and The Yokohama Rubber Co.,
premises of Zeon Chemicals Yonezawa Ltd., which has been selected under the
Co. Ltd. to develop production processes “Development of technology for pro-
for plant-derived raw materials. The ducing raw materials for plastics using
facility will accelerate the development CO and other sources,” one of the
2
of biotechnology to produce butadiene Green Innovation Fund Projects of the
and isoprene directly, which are key New Energy and Industrial Technology
components of synthetic rubber, from Development Organization (NEDO).
plant-derived materials, with the goal
of contributing to the realisation of a of both chemical and biofermentation Through research and development
circular economy. processes. The initiative is part of the at this facility, Zeon aims to commer-
“Development of manufacturing tech- cialise biotechnology for the direct
The research facility will seek to nology using carbon recycling for production of butadiene and isoprene
enable the simultaneous development commodity chemicals used in synthetic from plant-based materials by 2034.

166 Chemical Weekly July 1, 2025

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