thyssenkrupp nucera enjoys significant sales lift in its green hydrogen business driven by NEOM

thyssenkrupp nucera on Wednesday reported a 59% increase in sales in alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) for the production of green hydrogen.

The figure emerged as the German company reported high sales growth in the second quarter and first half of the 2023/2024 fiscal year, partly due to KSA giga-project NEOM.

thyssenkrupp nucera said the encouraging number came despite difficult conditions in the market for green hydrogen.

Hydrogen progress

The firm said it had successfully begun preparatory work for the commissioning of CF Industries’ water electrolysis plant in Louisiana. That US company is a leader in nitrogen products such as ammonia. 

Dr. Werner Ponikwar, thyssenkrupp nucera CEO, confirmed the plant as the world’s “first of our high-performance 20MW electrolysers” and will soon start producing green hydrogen on an industrial scale.

Other developments

March saw the electrolysis specialist enter into strategic partnership with Fraunhofer IKTS in the highly innovative high-temperature electrolysis (SOEC) technology area. 

thyssenkrupp nucera also took a major step forward in one of its core growth markets when the US Department of Energy selected it to advance mass production of water electrolysis cells and development of an automated assembly line for these cells.

The company in April also signed a contract for a 100MW-plus electrolysis project in Europe where mainly projects in ammonia, steel and refinery sectors are driving green hydrogen growth.

More overseas business

Cepsa has chosen it as preferred supplier for an AWE plant with installed capacity of 300MW for green hydrogen production at its refinery in the La Rábida energy park, southern Spain. With an annual production capacity of up to 47,000 tons of green hydrogen, the facility will be part of a large-scale project with total 2GW of electrolysis capacity by 2030. 

Australian project developer ABEL Energy also selected thyssenkrupp nucera for its 260MW project; ABEL specialises in green hydrogen and green methanol projects aimed at reducing maritime fossil carbon emissions.

Some market uncertainty

Some developments slowed momentum in the reporting period, however. 

Dr. Christoph Noeres, Head of Green Hydrogen, said thyssenkrupp nucera was currently seeing “a discrepancy in Europe and North America between originally planned projects and final investment decisions on the necessary electrolysis capacities”. 

He explained: “Although the necessary progress on the regulatory side is evident, many investors are waiting for the regulatory framework to be finalised. This situation is causing a level of uncertainty in the market.”

Focus on figures

thyssenkrupp nucera’s order intake of EUR 75.3 million in the second quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year was significantly lower than the previous year same quarter (EUR 130.9 million). 

In the AWE segment, it recorded new orders of EUR 11.6 million after EUR 82.0 million in the second quarter of 2022/2023. 

But thyssenkrupp nucera increased sales in the second quarter of the current financial year by 11.1% to EUR 168.0 million, with growth driven by sales in electrolysis plants for green hydrogen production. 

The NEOM effect

Swift completion of projects in Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Sweden led to a sharp 59.1% increase in AWE sales to EUR 95.0 million. 

EUR 376.3 million sales in the first half of 2023/2024 exceeded the previous year’s figure by 23%. In the AWE business, sales rose even more sharply by 68.6% to a record level of EUR 215.8 million. 

That was mainly driven by good progress in NEOM project execution where construction of the first 20MW modules began on the world’s largest gigawatt electrolysis project.