Industrial gas major Air Products will offtake by-product green hydrogen from chemicals firm Nobian’s chlor-alkali plant in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The facility, which was certified as renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO)-compliant in 2025, produces more than 14,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year through chlor-alkali electrolysis.
The agreement gives Air Products access to RFNBO volumes from an existing production process, as European developers struggle to bring purpose-built green hydrogen projects online.
Volumes covered by the “long-term” offtake agreement have not been revealed. But Nobian said the agreement would allow Air Products to supply customers seeking RFNBO volumes to meet Dutch Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) requirements in the transport and industrial sectors.
The Dutch government has set a 1.45% RFNBO sub-target for land transport by 2030, while it plans to implement quotas for RFNBO to account for 4% of all industrial hydrogen by the same date.
“By expanding access to RFNBO-certified hydrogen from an established source, we are helping customers navigate RED III compliance,” said Caroline Stancell, Vice-President Marketing and Growth, Europe and Africa at Air Products.
“These certified molecules are available today, and Air Products’ network can bring them to market in a reliable and practical way,” she said.
Air Products had planned to supply green hydrogen volumes from the 2.2GW Neom project in Saudi Arabia to meet RED III quotas, but froze import investments in 2025 amid delays in countries transposing the mandates into national laws.
It has since signed an agreement with Yara that will see the fertiliser major market and sell Neom green ammonia through its network.
Hydrogen produced from chlor-alkali electrolysis – which electrolyses brine to generate chlorine and sodium hydroxide – is often underutilised or used by chemical producers internally.
However, by powering the chlor-alkali process with qualifying renewable electricity, Nobian can certify the resulting hydrogen as RFNBO and sell it into the emerging compliance market. It also recently secured certification for by-product hydrogen at its Frankfurt plant.
Other European chemicals producers are also looking to monetise chlor-alkali hydrogen. Covestro has started supplying by-product hydrogen to Lanxess for synthetic iron oxide pigment production near Cologne.
