Even greener hydrogen: the decarbonization of electricity consumption advances

HyChem's solar park, installed within the perimeter of the ALGATEC Eco Business Park, was inaugurated yesterday by the Mayor of Vila Franca de Xira, Fernando Paulo Ferreira, and by the Director-General of Energy and Geology, Jerónimo Cunha.

A step forward in the industrial transformation process of HyChem, focused on decarbonization and sustainability.

With the commissioning of the new electricity production unit for self-consumption, with an injection power of 2MW into the internal grid, the Company completes a long and complex licensing process, from which it keeps an attentive eye, for the launch of a second phase, an investment aimed at adding 12MW of solar self-production and a potential wind supplement.

The inaugurated project, results from the efforts of a multidisciplinary team together with the installing firm, Greenvolt NEXT. This endeavor represents a significant advancement in the implementation of HyChem's strategy regarding the decarbonization process of its energy sources and the increase of its energy efficiency.

"On this date, we mark another historic milestone. We have been producing hydrogen since 1938, initiated a process of renewable energy transformation in 2021, and today we enter the world of green hydrogen. The goal is to demonstrate how to convert from a classical chemical approach to a circular economy logic, considering that only in this way can we truly be sustainable," adds the CEO of HyChem.

"We intend to establish a Biocluster that serves as a model for a sustainable community based on five premises: renewable energy production, the use of green hydrogen as an industrial raw material, the use of microalgae for biomass production, rational water use and wastewater treatment, and contributing to mobility by providing land and easing congestion on National Highway 10," concludes Manuel Gil Antunes.

From now on, the hydrogen produced by HyChem will be green whenever the energy used in its production comes from the new photovoltaic plant, and furthermore, whenever the electrical energy used from the national grid comes solely from renewable sources (wind, hydro, and solar). And it will increasingly become so thanks to the contribution of the expansion of the self-consumption production unit, whose first phase has just been inaugurated.