Many didn’t believe it. And yet, it is now possible to produce hydrogen by electrolysis from salt water. The process is carried out at the foot of the wind turbines. On September 30, 2021, in Bouin, in Vendée, the start-up Lhyfe inaugurated a production unit producing 300 kg of hydrogen per day. The idea is to quickly move up to one ton per day.
With an investment of 10 million euros, this production unit will be able to supply the skips and buses of neighboring communities, but also utility vehicles from companies such as DB Schenker, specializing in logistics, Charier, which deals with works public, and Lidl, a major retail player. Lhyfe also indicated that it had raised funds of 50 million euros during the summer of 2021. The objective is the international development of the company and investment in green hydrogen production projects.
The president and founder of Lhyfe, Matthieu Guesné, also specified that he had around sixty projects, a third of which concerned international projects. Lhyfe is expected to decarbonize a chemical sector manufacturer in Denmark and a company specializing in steel production in Italy.
But Matthieu Guesné is looking towards the sea, where he wants to produce hydrogen. This is actually the first idea of the founder of the Nantes start-up. High-tech or low-tech, nothing is yet fixed, but the idea has gained ground. Lhyfe has also just joined forces with Aquaterra Energy and Borr Drilling, two oil services companies, to reuse old oil platforms and offshore infrastructure. The idea is to install electrolysers near wind farms in the North Sea, to store the surplus electricity produced there in the form of hydrogen, then to transport this hydrogen to land via gas pipelines. This means of delivery is also much cheaper than electric cables.
Associated with the offshore engineering company Doris, Lhyfe is seeking to develop electrolysers in wind turbine masts.
La Roche-sur-Yon, in Vendée, also has the first bus running on hydrogen produced using the Lhyfe process then compressed and stored in containers before being transported to stations.
Lhyfe is also developing an electrolyzer boat in Saint-Nazaire, in Loire-Atlantique. Finally, Lhyfe will supply green hydrogen to decarbonize German rail transport. Deutsche Bahn, the German railway operator, has in fact called on the Nantes start-up for the construction and operation of an electrolyser intended to power hydrogen trains.
