Hydrogen Marketing & Utilization
Making Green Hydrogen an Attractive Trading Product
Green Hydrogen Marketing
The energy transition is also transforming the energy system, and consequently the market system, as we know it today. For green hydrogen to be successful on the market, new hydrogen trading products must be developed in addition to attractive regulatory frameworks. However, the marketing of green hydrogen has so far been largely untested. Therefore, VNG AG, together with its subsidiary VNG Handel & Vertrieb GmbH, is intensively working on developing a viable business model for green hydrogen. With over 60 years of experience in the energy market and a broad, future-proof service portfolio in gas and infrastructure, the Europe-wide active group is the ideal partner for this endeavor. Production and marketing are carried out by the Joint Venture Elektrolyse Mitteldeutschland GmbH (EMG) from a single source. The business model to be developed should not only enable the green hydrogen produced at Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt to be used by customers from 2026 and thus marketed as cost-effectively as possible, but also serve as a guide for future developments in the hydrogen sector. It is therefore important to prove: Green hydrogen is not only technically, but also economically feasible!
Contact Person
Sebastian Pflüger
Managing Director Elektrolyse Mitteldeutschland GmbH
Senior Project Manager Hydrogen VNG H&V
Use of Green Hydrogen in the Chemical Industry
The green hydrogen produced at Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt will be supplied entirely to the TotalEnergies Refinery Mitteldeutschland in Leuna. As the main and sole off-taker, the refinery can use the hydrogen in its industrial processes and thus prospectively replace fossil hydrogen sources. The green hydrogen will be transported directly from the energy park to the refinery site via the approximately 25-kilometer re-purposed gas pipeline.
In addition to its material use in the refinery, the energy park also demonstrates how green hydrogen can prospectively act as a link between renewable electricity generation and industrial energy demand – for example, through its storage capability and system-serving integration into an increasingly renewable energy system.
Further Application Areas for Green Hydrogen
In the transport sector, green hydrogen primarily offers solutions for areas with high range requirements, such as shipping, aviation, and long-distance road freight. Especially in these sectors, there is currently no climate-friendly alternative to fossil fuels. The highly cooled or compressed green hydrogen can either be refueled directly here or provide the basis for further processing into synthetic fuels. These are particularly relevant for shipping and aviation.
In the field of urban energy supply, the advantages of green hydrogen primarily lie in closing potential supply gaps that can arise from factors such as hours of sunshine and wind speed when using renewable energies. To close these supply gaps in the energy sector, surplus energy from favorable periods can be stored in the form of hydrogen. This can then be used in gas-fired power plants when necessary to bridge supply gaps and ensure a constant energy supply.
Hydrogen can also contribute to CO2 reduction in the heating sector. By feeding it into the gas grid, end customers can be directly supplied with a mixture of green hydrogen and natural gas. This concept is not new and has been applied frequently in the past. However, in these cases, it has not been green hydrogen.
