Netherlands-based engineering firm Iv-Offshore Energy has developed a platform that uses offshore wind energy to produce 85 kilotons of hydrogen per year.

With a capacity of 500 megawatts, the platform can produce enough green hydrogen in one day to power more than 300,000 hydrogen vehicles for a range of at least 100 kilometers, the company said. According to information on the company's website, the platform has a production capacity of 10,000 kilograms of green hydrogen per hour.

Iv-Offshore Energy completed the complete design of the offshore hydrogen platform, from process design and integration of electrolyzer systems to equipment balancing, jacket design and auxiliary systems.

The offshore hydrogen platform is comparable in size to the company's 1.3GW HVDC substation designed for RWE's Sofia offshore wind farm in the UK. The platform weighs 21,000 tons and can be installed in water depths up to 45 meters.

Now that offshore wind farms are moving further and further away from the coast, the need to integrate sustainable energy systems is imperative, according to Iv-Offshore Energy. The vast amount of electricity generated by offshore wind farms cannot simply be fed into the onshore high-voltage grid during peak hours. Keywords: engineering news, overseas news

However, converting it to hydrogen offers the possibility of bringing this renewable energy source to shore for use. Hydrogen is simpler than electricity, cheaper to transport and store, and can use existing or new pipelines.Editor/XingWentao