Official approval granted for Hydrogenious LOHC’s ’Hector’ storage plant

Project ’Hector’ has now received the official building and operating permit for the storage plant in accordance with §4 of the German Federal Immission Control Act (Bundes-Immissionsschutzgesetz - BImSchG).

Fundamental milestone

The documents for the permit application were submitted to the competent authority, the District Government of Cologne, at the end of May 2023 and have since passed all necessary review steps, including public display and hearing. The building and operating permit of this liquid organic hydrogen carrer (LOHC) storage plant constitutes a major achievement. Hydrogenious LOHC’s technology is considered mature and proven by the authorities, ready for implementation and operation on an industrial scale.

LOHC Industrial Solutions NRW GmbH, a subsidiary of Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies based in Neuss, Germany, will be responsible for the project management, the construction, and subsequent operation of the plant. Commissioning and starting commercial operations are presently scheduled for the end of 2027 with a plant capacity of approximately 1800 tpy of hydrogen, which will be safely stored in benzyltoluene.

The plant will be built at Covestro’s site in the Chempark Dormagen, Germany. Covestro Deutschland AG has been a shareholder in Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies GmbH since 2019 and intends to supply hydrogen for the facility, qualified as renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) and produced in their chlorine electrolysis plants.

Project ’Hector’ is also aimed at advancing scientific insights to further develop the LOHC technology. The Helmholtz Institute Erlangen-Nürnberg for Renewable Energy (HI ERN), part of Forschungszentrum Jülich, supports the project and focuses on optimising catalyst performance, ensuring the quality of hydrogen and LOHC materials, and developing robust quality assurance processes for industrial-scale applications.

Project ’Hector’ will receive funding in the amount of €9 million from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia under the progress.nrw programme, of which about €2 million have been awarded to the HI ERN for the scientific work.

Clean hydrogen supply for Southern Bavaria

Following commissioning, the ‘Hector’ storage plant will be connected to Hydrogenious’ IPCEI ‘Green Hydrogen @ Blue Danube’ to supply industrial offtakers in Southern Bavaria via a release plant in the Ingolstadt region. The umbrella project named ‘LOHC Link’ will create a comprehensive and resilient green hydrogen supply chain based on LOHC-BT that serves as a blueprint for providing access to clean hydrogen in areas not immediately accessible via port or pipeline infrastructure.

Read the article online at: https://www.tanksterminals.com/storage-tanks/29042025/official-approval-granted-for-hydrogenious-lohcs-hector-storage-plant/