FRANKFURT, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp's
hydrogen unit Uhde Chlorine Engineers (tkUCE), which the German
conglomerate plans to list in spring, has signed a deal to
deliver a 200-megawatt electrolyser to oil major Shell,
it said on Monday.
The agreement is part of Shell's Hydrogen Holland I project,
a planned green hydrogen production site in the port of
Rotterdam. The project is part of Shell's effort to become a
net-zero-emissions energy business by 2050 and to cut production
of traditional fuels by 55% by 2030.
Shell is expected to make its final investment decision for
the site this year. Production could then start in 2024, said
Thyssenkrupp, which has scheduled a capital markets day for
tkUCE later this week.
"With our large-scale standard module size, we will further
strengthen Shell's hydrogen strategy," Christoph Noeres, head of
Green Hydrogen at tkUCE, said in a statement.
"Our partnership perfectly combines our engineering
excellence with Shell's competence of a large global energy
player."
tkUCE is the world's largest supplier of chlor-alkali
membrane technologies needed to produce hydrogen, a field where
it competes with Japan's Asahi Kasei, China's Bluestar
Beijing Chemical Machinery and Britain's chemicals group Ineos
.
Shares in Thyssenkrupp, which holds 64% in tkUCE, were up
2.6% after the announcement, reflecting the hopes tied to
hydrogen as a booming business area across Europe.
Investors will get a deeper look at the business, in which
Italy's De Nora <IPO-DENR.MI> is a co-shareholder, for the first
time at a capital markets day on Jan. 13.
(Reporting by Christoph Steitz, Editing by Miranda Murray and
Bernadette Baum)
