Germany's Sunfire breaks through the field of green hydrogen, the first European refinery 100 MW electrolyser order!

German electrolyser manufacturer Sunfire has made an important breakthrough in the field of green hydrogen, winning a contract to supply 100 MW of pressurized alkaline electrolyzers to a European refinery. The purchase order includes 10 Sunfire modules, each with a capacity of 10MW, as well as power units. Sunfire will oversee the subsequent installation and commissioning of the system.

Sunfire's CEO Nils Aldag said the project is scheduled to be operational by early 2026 and "now we are ready to deliver large-scale projects." He added: "Signing this 100MW contract marks a key milestone for Sunfire as it is our first commercial order from a leading European refinery. Refineries are at the forefront of decarbonizing through green hydrogen and are therefore one of our strategic target industries."

Back in 2023, Sunfire launched its scaling strategy. "With our track record in industrial projects and our scale strategy to reach an annual capacity of 1GW per alkaline cell by 2024, Sunfire is one of the few electrolysis companies in the world capable of delivering electrolysis on an industrial scale," commented Aldag.

In June 2023, a German consortium made a final investment decision (FID) for the construction of a 30 MW green hydrogen project in the Bad Lauchstadt Energy Park, which will use the Sunfire electrolyzer system. As part of the project, all green hydrogen produced by totalenergy will partially replace grey hydrogen used at its Leuna refinery.

It is worth mentioning that in the alkaline electrolyzer (ALK), proton exchange membrane electrolyzer (PEM), ion exchange membrane electrolyzer (AEM) and solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) and other electrolytic water hydrogen production routes, alkaline electrolyzer stands out by virtue of its relatively mature technology, simple structure, safety and stability, and relatively low cost. It has become the mainstream route for electrolytic water to produce hydrogen. However, with the intensification of market competition, how to make breakthroughs in the field of alkaline electrolyzers, achieve technological innovation and reduce costs will be the key to future enterprise development.