Repsol SA’s board has approved a project to install a 150-Mw renewable hydrogen electrolyzer for production of renewable hydrogen at the operator’s 190,000-b/d Tarragona integrated refining and petrochemicals industrial complex along northeastern Spain’s Costa Daurada of the Mediterranean Sea.
To be developed with partner Enagás Renovable SA (25%), the green hydrogen project will require an investment of about €400 million and enable production of more than 22,000 tonnes/year (tpy) of renewable hydrogen, Respol said in a release Nov. 12.
Repsol, which will operate and hold a 75% stake in the new plant, confirmed hydrogen produced by the project would be used to support Tarragona’s refining and production processes, as well as for production of chemical products.
A portion of the hydrogen additionally would serve as feedstock for production of renewable methanol at the operator’s co-located Ecoplanta operations that, by 2029, will process up to 400,000 tpy municipal solid waste into 240,000 tpy renewable fuels and other circular products.
The electrolyzer also could supply renewable hydrogen to the local natural gas network and Spain’s planned Hydrogen Backbone network in the future, Repsol said.
Once operable, the company estimates the renewable hydrogen plant would enable the Tarragona site to avoid up to 250,000 tpy of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The project has already been selected to receive up to €104 million under Spain’s regional Hydrogen Valley initiative—a public-private effort to develop a local hydrogen ecosystem—promoted by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge and funded through Spain’s Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan with NextGenerationEU funds.
Now in the engineering phase, Repsol said the plant’s electrolyzer will use recovered industrial water as well as incorporate technology designed to maximize energy efficiency of the production process as part of the operator’s broader ongoing strategy to further reduce environmental impacts of its global operations.
Repsol estimates the project will generate about 1,000 direct, indirect, and future associated jobs, primarily in the Tarragona area, during its various stages of development and operation.
Tentatively scheduled for startup in 2028-29, the plant, once online, is to be integrated into the Hydrogen Valley of Catalonia and the Ebro Hydrogen Corridor, two key ecosystems aimed at advancing development of a hydrogen economy in southern Europe.
The newly confirmed Tarragona investmentt marks Repsol’s third large-scale renewable hydrogen project in Spain, following previously announced projects at its 220,000-b/d Cartagena refinery in Spain’s southeastern province of Murcia, and at subsidiary Petróleos del Norte SA’s (Petronor) 220,000-b/d refinery and industrial complex at Múskiz, near Bilbao, Biscay Province, in Spain’s northern autonomous Basque Country.
