Published: 20.08.24
A new comprehensive guideline on safety in installing Power-to-X plants aims to overcome barriers for the emerging industry. The guideline is an online tool that offers solutions to challenges faced by many stakeholders in the Power-to-X industry, and will be released on 10th September.
The potential is huge – for both the climate and the business community – but the path to success risks being paved with hesitant approvals from authorities and resistance from local citizens if safety is questioned when establishing new Power-to-X plants. This will be mitigated by the new, nearly 200-page ‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ when it is being released in September as a result of the Safer and Faster PtX Implementation Pathways project.
- The guideline will help the industry to get started faster in establishing Power-to-X plants – by covering all aspects of safety, approval processes and potential obstacles in advance. This is particularly true in relation to the approval authorities, for whom Power-to-X is still largely unknown. In addition, the guideline should help to standardise the approval processes amongst municipalities by providing a common platform from which to speak about safety, says Jesper Sjørvad.
As Principal Consultant for Landbased Power-to-X in the Department of Energy & Transport at DBI – the Danish Institute of Fire and Security Technology, Jesper Sjørvad is coordinating the project together with FORCE Technology. Additional MissionGreenFuels partners are HØST PtX Esbjerg, Dansk Standard, DFDS, European Energy, Green Hydrogen Systems, Everfuel, Rønne Havn, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Skovgaard Invest.
HØST PtX Esbjerg, who will produce green hydrogen and ammonia when they go into operation in about five years, has a central role in the project. The Guideline is based on the safety requirements, standards and approvals already addressed by the large Power-to-X plant, financed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP).
- The Guideline is relevant for all industries and sectors that produce, handle or store new fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia and methanol, but it is primarily aimed at their producers. In detail, the Guideline is not 100 % comprehensive for all types of plants. There is a difference between building an ammonia plant in the town of Esbjerg and a hydrogen plant on the island of Funen, says Jesper Sjørvad.
The ‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ is pedagogically constructed by initially taking the reader through all the approvals associated with each phase of Power-to-X system installation – from the idea phase and concept design to engineering and construction to operation and maintenance.
- We have simply created a flow. When you have a good idea, which approvals should you consider? Which authorities should you talk to, and what should you have done? When you are going to draw the idea, what do you need to do now? Whom should you talk to in that phase? When you are going to build, what do you need to have in place before you start? When you need to test and produce, what happens then? We list all these things to consider in relation to safety in each phase of a project, Jesper Sjørvad elaborates.
On the basis of the initial overview, you can then dive into the respective chapters of the Guideline, where authorities – not least the municipalities that take a position on the risks of Power-to-X projects – are described in detail. Perhaps more surprisingly, the Guideline also contains an entire chapter on society and public perception.
- We’ve included this because green projects can come to a standstill due to local protests because citizens are not adequately informed and do not feel ownership. It is not necessarily about 'NIMBY' (not in my backyard), but about someone coming from outside and establishing a large plant without it benefiting the local community. There are potentially many forms of resistance, and we have written a chapter on how to handle this proactively, says Jesper Sjørvad.
The Guideline also contains a list of existing safety standards that are relevant when establishing a Power-to-X plant.
- That list is almost as long as the Guideline itself. Nevertheless, there are still areas where standards are lacking, for example, rules for detecting hydrogen, where the gas directive is used instead. This can create uncertainty and delay a project. Therefore, the guideline describes how to carry it out safely. Hydrogen is already being produced in various locations abroad, and in Denmark Everfuel has established hydrogen filling stations, so that is possible, says Jesper Sjørvad, continuing:
- Together with FORCE Technology, DBI is of the opinion that standards and regulations do not necessarily cover all aspects of safety. Therefore, the Guideline also has a comprehensive chapter on risk assessment and risk management, including which systems can be used for this. If you have good control of that part, it gives peace of mind to the authorities that are to grant the permits.
Even before the ‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ has been published, the first player is ready to test it when establishing a new Power-to-X system. This concerns the Swiss company H2 Energy, which is building a green hydrogen production plant in the Danish town of Esbjerg. H2 Energy Europe has the planning basis and environmental permit in place, but uses the Guide as inspiration and a reference work in the preparing further processes leading up to the plant's construction.
The ‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ will be released on 10th September 2024.
‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ is a new guideline that will be published 10th September 2024. It covers all aspects of safety in Power-to-X plants, paving the way for faster installation. The Guideline is the result of the three-year project Safe and Faster PtX Implementation Pathways, financed by the Innovation Fund in a MissionGreenFuels partnership and managed by Energy Cluster Denmark.
DBI and FORCE Technology are the managers of the project, which also includes partners HØST PtX Esbjerg (CIP), Dansk Standard, DFDS, European Energy, Green Hydrogen Systems, Everfuel, Rønne Havn, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and Skovgaard Invest.
The ‘Guideline for Safe and Faster PtX’ will be released on 10th September 2024. Sign up for the release event
From 10th September, you can find the new guideline on DBI’s homepage.
Jesper Sjørvad
Function Leader
