Hydrogen production has officially been launched at Haffner Energy’s Marolles site, which is in France. The hydrogen is being produced from biomass and the company has already formed plans to be able to supply hydrogen for commercial use, later on this year.

To make this success possible, the facility used a thermochemical process, which worked to convert wood residues into hydrogen which was labelled at ‘mobility grade.’ The production rate of this was 15kg per hour and the system was specifically designed to be capable of continuously operating for 8,000 hours every year.

Right now, the unit is already able to produce hydrogen at eight bar pressure and this hydrogen will be suitable for commercial distribution by the second half of 2025. The hydrogen that is produced at this point, will be mainly marketed towards the transportation and industrial markets.

During the project’s first phase, the pre-existing pressure swing absorption (PSA) purification equipment, will make it possible for Haffner to produce 11kg every hour. Once this has been accomplished, this equipment will be replaced by a PSA which will have the ability to reach a capacity of 15kg an hour.

Due to the cost competitiveness of the system, Haffner Energy has said that its biomass thermolysis process is a ‘game changer.’

It has already been suggested that this excellent and innovative new technique is able to rival grey hydrogen at 20MW+ installations, plus this system is also cheaper than electrolysis, as it benefits from both low energy costs (>€30/MWh), as well as high efficiency (>70%).

Haffner said that, ‘a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the offtake has been signed to supply 90 tonnes of hydrogen per year to an unnamed customer, mainly for mobility applications. This ensures that the hydrogen produced will have a market within the next few months.’

Co-Founder and CEO of Haffner Energy, Philippe Haffner, commented, “Achieving the continuous production of competitive green hydrogen is a decisive step. Currently, the industry faces significant delays due to the excessive cost of decarbonised hydrogen. We are confident that our solution will accelerate the adoption of renewable hydrogen and enhance the sector’s competitiveness.”