Energy company TotalEnergies and industrial gases company Air Products announced a new 15-year green hydrogen supply agreement aimed at reducing the operating greenhouse gas emissions footprint of TotalEnergies’ European refineries.

The announcement follows the launch last year by TotalEnergies of tenders for the supply of 500,000 tons per year of green hydrogen. TotalEnergies has six refineries in Europe, including three in France, and refineries in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as two biorefineries in France, all of which use hydrogen. The company has stated that it wants to replace 500,000 tons per year of the hydrogen consumed in its refineries with green hydrogen by 2030, which it anticipates could help reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 5 million tonnes annually.

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical. Around 90 million metric tons of hydrogen are produced annually, although the vast majority is extracted using fossil fuels, which create pollutants and GHG emissions. Air Products has committed $15 billion to energy transition and low carbon hydrogen production projects, including green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy to power the process to extract hydrogen from other materials.

Air Products’ Chairman, President and CEO Seifi Ghasemi said:

“We always believed that if we made clean hydrogen available at commercial scale, the demand would be there. This contract validates our long-term strategy. Clearly the demand is here, and it will grow significantly as we move forward, playing an essential role in decarbonizing heavy industry and other sectors.”

Under the new agreement, Air Products will deliver 70,000 tons of green hydrogen per year to TotalEnergies’ Northern European refineries, starting in 2030. According to TotalEnergies, the hydrogen will enable the avoidance of approximately 700,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

The companies also signed an agreement for the supply of renewable power, including a 150 MW PPA for TotalEnergies to supply Air Products with 150 MW of energy produced at a solar project in Texas, along with plans to explore PPA opportunities in the UK, Poland and France.

Patrick Pouyanné, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said:

“Once again, we demonstrate our capacity to pioneer the energy transition and contribute to the emergence of a green hydrogen industry by offering long-term contracts with our six refineries and two biorefineries in Europe. We are also happy to extend our partnership with Air Products by becoming ourselves a supplier of green power to Air Products and contributing to Air Products’ own decarbonization roadmap.”