Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park: Supply Chain for Green Hydrogen Now Contractually Complete
- ONTRAS and TotalEnergies Sign Contracts for Network Connection and Land Use
- Refinery First Transport Customer of the Future Nationwide Hydrogen Core Network
- Construction of the Transfer Station Planned to Begin in July
ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH (ONTRAS) and TotalEnergies Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH (TotalEnergies) today signed the network connection and land use agreements for the connection to the hydrogen network being developed in Central Germany in Leuna. This means that the entire supply chain for green hydrogen from the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park is now also contractually complete. Gunar Schmidt, ONTRAS Managing Director of Operations and Safety, explains: "With our signatures today, we have created all the necessary contractual foundations for the production and transport of hydrogen – from the electricity for electrolysis to the production, transport, and distribution of green hydrogen, to the contracts necessary for the technical implementation of the network connection. We are very pleased that we will also be connecting TotalEnergies as the first customer nationwide to the future hydrogen core network. Now we can fully focus on the timely conversion of the existing natural gas pipeline to hydrogen. By the fourth quarter of 2025, the refinery should be able to use hydrogen from our pipeline for the first time."
Thomas Behrends, Managing Director of TotalEnergies, emphasizes: "The refinery in Leuna is working intensively on various projects to drastically reduce its CO2 footprint by the end of this decade. Green hydrogen plays a central role in this. This project marks the first step that will enable us to import large quantities of green hydrogen in the future and thus replace the gray hydrogen currently used in our processes. Thanks to this project, Leuna will have access to the future national hydrogen infrastructure and thus to international markets for green hydrogen."
The renewable hydrogen produced in the Energy Park Bad Lauchstädt will be transported by ONTRAS via a roughly 25-kilometer-long hydrogen transport pipeline to the TotalEnergies refinery site in Leuna. This pipeline is currently being converted from natural gas to the renewable energy carrier.
The technological and commercial conditions and regulations necessary for the supply of TotalEnergies are set out in the contracts signed today. A metering and control system, a connection line, and its network connection to the ONTRAS hydrogen network must be created. The new network connection to be built for this purpose will be realized as part of the "Reallabor Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt" research project.
Construction of the necessary facilities on the refinery site is planned to begin in July. By the end of the year, the ONTRAS pipeline should be fully converted to hydrogen transport so that commercial hydrogen transport can start as planned in the second half of 2025.
ONTRAS Gastransport GmbH (ONTRAS) and TotalEnergies Raffinerie Mitteldeutschland GmbH (TotalEnergies) today signed the network connection and land use agreements for the connection to the hydrogen network being developed in Central Germany in Leuna. This means that the entire supply chain for green hydrogen from the Bad Lauchstädt Energy Park is now also contractually complete. Gunar Schmidt, ONTRAS Managing Director of Operations and Safety, explains: "With our signatures today, we have created all the necessary contractual foundations for the production and transport of hydrogen – from the electricity for electrolysis to the production, transport, and distribution of green hydrogen, to the contracts necessary for the technical implementation of the network connection. We are very pleased that we will also be connecting TotalEnergies as the first customer nationwide to the future hydrogen core network. Now we can fully focus on the timely conversion of the existing natural gas pipeline to hydrogen. By the fourth quarter of 2025, the refinery should be able to use hydrogen from our pipeline for the first time."
Thomas Behrends, Managing Director of TotalEnergies, emphasizes: "The refinery in Leuna is working intensively on various projects to drastically reduce its CO2 footprint by the end of this decade. Green hydrogen plays a central role in this. This project marks the first step that will enable us to import large quantities of green hydrogen in the future and thus replace the gray hydrogen currently used in our processes. Thanks to this project, Leuna will have access to the future national hydrogen infrastructure and thus to international markets for green hydrogen."
The renewable hydrogen produced in the Energy Park Bad Lauchstädt will be transported by ONTRAS via a roughly 25-kilometer-long hydrogen transport pipeline to the TotalEnergies refinery site in Leuna. This pipeline is currently being converted from natural gas to the renewable energy carrier.
The technological and commercial conditions and regulations necessary for the supply of TotalEnergies are set out in the contracts signed today. A metering and control system, a connection line, and its network connection to the ONTRAS hydrogen network must be created. The new network connection to be built for this purpose will be realized as part of the "Reallabor Energiepark Bad Lauchstädt" research project.
Construction of the necessary facilities on the refinery site is planned to begin in July. By the end of the year, the ONTRAS pipeline should be fully converted to hydrogen transport so that commercial hydrogen transport can start as planned in the second half of 2025.
