Germany's EEX working "full steam" on building hydrogen index

London (Quantum Commodity Intelligence) - The European Energy Exchange said Friday it was 'working full steam' on providing an index for trading hydrogen in Europe following feedback from more than 60 participants, as the race to win the lucrative benchmark for the fuel of the future starts.

The German-based exchange has established a hydrogen working group to design a sustainable wholesale trading market for hydrogen.

"During the (last) workshop, the necessity of a trustful index seemed to be shared widely," a spokesperson told Quantum.

"We see it as one of our first tasks to provide the market and the broader public with transparency through indices and are working on this full steam with the support of the working group."

EEX has created the first electronic document to guarantee the origin of hydrogen.

Meanwhile, a consortium of port authorities in Holland – Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Groningen and North Sea Port, which includes Vlissigen, Terneuzen and Ghent – announced they were one step closer to setting up a hydrogen exchange.

The ports have commissioned Bert den Ouden, the former chief executive of the Dutch Energy Exchange, to conduct a study for Gasunie, a Dutch natural gas pipeline company, on creating the conditions for a viable index.

Den Ouden has outlined plans for a new hydrogen exchange, called HyXchange, which will operate along the lines of the electricity and gas exchanges.

The study has identified three key areas for development.

Firstly, certification of green, low-carbon and imported hydrogen will be needed to pipe a great volume of the gas from a wide range of sources through a single grid, while still allowing users to choose which type of hydrogen they wish to buy.

Secondly, there needs to be an index that provides transparency in the price of hydrogen.

Thirdly, a spot market in hydrogen will need to be developed hand-in-hand with the index, firstly at one of the ports in Holland, and then connected by Gasunie to the other ports and national grid system.  

The European Union has made the development of hydrogen a key goal in its target to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

By 2030, the EU wants to see at least 40 GW of renewable hydrogen electrolysers and the production of up to 10 million mt of renewable hydrogen.

Shell's Rhineland complex will become the first refinery in Germany to operate an electrolyzer plant in July.

The plant, a 10-MW advanced polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, will start on 2 July at the 140,000-b/d Wesseling refinery, part of the 325,000-b/d integrated Rheinland facility.