The hydrogen infrastructure is consolidating towards the transition to a clean energy system. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Hydrogen Review 2024, investments in hydrogen projects have doubled in the last year and production is expected to reach 49 Mt annually by 2030. To achieve these data, a structure is needed that covers a lot and a Scottish study has managed to find a highway to hydrogen with sea buoys.
A hydrogen buoy? Scottish company Oasis Marine has developed industrial buoys that supply green hydrogen and electrical charging for ships on the high seas, forming part of a marine hydrogen highway.
The company seeks to facilitate the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The hydrogen buoy has been tested as part of the TestHOTS project, supported and funded by the Scottish Government’s Emerging Energy Technologies Fund Hydrogen Innovation Scheme (HIS).
Hydrogen highway? The hydrogen buoys will be strategically installed on main shipping routes and close to offshore wind farms, creating refueling stations for ships. In addition, the function of the buoys as storage and distribution of hydrogen could have other applications such as supplying oil platforms that wish to be electrified or convert their operations to hydrogen.
The design. The system is made up of smart mooring buoys capable of providing hydrogen fuel to ships on the high seas. The buoys, Oasis Hydrogen Buoy and Oasis Power Buoy, will provide green hydrogen through water electrolysis, using energy from offshore wind farms. The ships will then refuel with hydrogen or charge their electric batteries once they connect to buoys while moored offshore, without needing to return to ports.
It should be added that the buoys have advanced anchoring and fuel transfer systems that work even in adverse ocean conditions. The tests carried out in wave tanks were a success, the Scottish company said.
Other similar structures in Europe. The European continent is increasingly looking at hydrogen as an alternative source to achieve, among other things, weaning itself from Russian gas. However, the country that has the leadership in this sector is Spain with different projects.
On the one hand, the country does not stop growing and developing different projects with hydrogen, such as the recent hydrogen train that has crossed the entire Iberian Peninsula. On the other hand, Spain’s infrastructure to develop hydrogen passes through the H2Med corridor, the numerous hydrogen points distributed throughout the territory and the installed renewable energy capacity. Furthermore, you are looking for how can be combined with biomethane as raw material for its production through reforming, replacing fossil gas.
The projects of different countries regarding hydrogen highlight the different options that countries take to continue progressing towards the transition and meet the proposed objectives. For its part, the European Commission, with the REPowerEU program, plans to produce 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen and import another 10 million by 2030.
Image | OasisMarine
WorldOfSoftware | English researchers have discovered which is the best crop for agrivoltaic installations: tomatoes
