Hydrogen Engineering Consultancy

Sweco’s hydrogen consultancy services cover complex energy system analysis, due diligence and funding, business/market development (including incentives) and R&D as well as production, distribution, storage and end-use including permits and safety requests.

As the UK makes progress towards net zero, it is widely anticipated that hydrogen will play a central role in the switching of the transportation and industrial sectors away from fossil fuels. At Sweco UK – in partnership with vastly experienced teams from across our Group, we have the global expertise and local knowledge required to provide innovative hydrogen engineering consultancy that will drive meaningful energy evolution within the wider Green Transition. 

Our energy teams – in the UK and across Europe – bring together significant experience in the technical and advisory consultancy required for to establish hydrogen as the clean, low carbon energy of the future. To drive knowledge-sharing and support policy-making, Sweco has established a dedicated international Hydrogen steering group to promote cross-border collaboration.

Sweco’s hydrogen highlights

Sweco’s experts have wide-ranging experience from green hydrogen projects, ranging from early-stage planning to designing production plants, storage and transport solutions. Sweco’s in-depth expertise in Power-to-X technologies, electrolysis and carbon capture enable experts to create innovative green hydrogen solutions. Below are just some of the recent hydrogen-related projects Sweco has supported.

Feasibility & Environmental consultancy for a hydrogen Connectrolyser in the UK

The UK Government has set a target of reaching 5GW of low-carbon hydrogen productive capacity by 2030. In recognition of a number of constraints seemingly hindering the rollout and uptake of this technology in the UK, Sweco was commissioned to assist in the development of a feasibility study for Hydrogenus, specifically focusing on the installation of a 10MW hydrogen production facility.

Sweco provided evidence and delivered key insights into the practicalities of local hydrogen “hubs,” specifically targeting a UK knowledge gap whilst directly addressing the client’s challenges in the transition to a low-carbon economy. Engineers from within Sweco Belgium’s Hydrogen team, supported by environmental and transportation experts in the UK, took the lead on the technical design of the Connectrolyser itself.

This report aimed to identify and set out what the key constraints and opportunities are in the prevailing policy context, achieved through the formulation of functional design and implementation plans, calculation of balance of plant requirements to meet transportation / heavy industry needs, and an overview of the economic costs and benefits associated with a plant of this productive capacity.

In a wider sense, the report and assessment forms part of the Connectrolyser feasibility study for the alpha stage of the Strategic Innovation Fund Project. The study and analysis undertaken is to determine the benefit the Connectrolyser could provide by designing a hydrogen generation facility that also acts as a flexible energy demand/generation resource to reduce power network curtailment in the UK electricity distribution network. The implementation of Hydrogen as a fuel is at a critical stage in the UK, with a need to increase the scale of its production and affordability in the pursuit of achieving net zero.

Unlocking the first large-scale green hydrogen plant in the Benelux

VoltH2 has commissioned Sweco to perform the permit design and subsidy trajectory for two green hydrogen plants in the North Sea Port area in Vlissingen and Terneuzen (the Netherlands). The two planned hydrogen plants will generate green hydrogen using electricity from wind energy at sea. Thanks to these 25 MW hydrogen electrolysis plants millions of kilos of hydrogen will be produced from wind energy within a few years.

With positive impact on the entire value chain of hydrogen, VoltH2’s 25 MW green hydrogen plant in Vlissingen can produce up to 3,500 tonnes of green hydrogen per year, scalable up to 100 MW (14,000 tonnes). For context, one kilo of hydrogen is enough to drive a car 100 kilometres. The production plant can be connected to the European Hydrogen Backbone – the dedicated hydrogen infrastructure traversing Europe. VoltH2 is also actively developing additional sites in Belgium, France and Germany.

P2X progress in Finland

Sweco is designing a P2X Solutions green hydrogen production plant in the Harjavalta Industrial Park. The facility, scheduled to be completed in 2024, will become the first industrial-scale green hydrogen production plant in Finland.

This 20-megawatt P2X facility will turn renewable energy into hydrogen fuel. The Harjavalta plant is estimated to reduce Finland’s CO2 emissions by 40,000 tonnes annually, the equivalent of removing around 20,000 gasoline-powered cars from the roads. Hydrogen and synthetic fuels refined from the plant, such as methane, play a key role in adapting energy-intensive road transport, aviation and sea shipping to stricter emission limits.

The plant is just one of several projects that are underway. Other similar projects have not yet reached construction phase. Facilities of this kind will be capable of reducing CO2 emissions by even greater quantities in the future, which illustrates the potential that P2X and green hydrogen have in the pursuit of carbon-neutrality.

Converting plastic waste to low-carbon hydrogen in Poland

Plastic waste represents a worldwide issue, with only 16 per cent being repurposed into new products, whereas 40 per cent ends up in landfills across the globe. A waste-to-hydrogen initiative in central Poland is under development to tackle this issue, aiming to produce low-carbon hydrogen that will support the ongoing energy transition.

Modular waste-to-hydrogen plants will convert 40 tonnes of non-recyclable plastic waste into approximately 2.7 tonnes of 99.9 per cent pure low-carbon hydrogen each day, with the yield varying based on the plastic waste’s composition.

The processing line has the capacity to produce 2.5 to 3 tonnes of hydrogen daily, with the output contingent upon the raw material used. This fully electrified process will operate on renewable energy. Over its lifespan, the project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by hundreds of thousands of tonnes of CO2 equivalent (tCO2e), replacing lignite-derived heat and bolstering hydrogen utilisation. Additionally, the tail gas generated will power gas engines to create electricity and heat. Looking ahead, this byproduct holds potential as a feedstock in the chemical and petrochemical sectors.

Approximately 20 Sweco experts have been involved in the project, providing project design, communication and technical advisory support.