Hydrogen project to decarbonize major European ceramic cluster
VALENCIA/WOLLERAU/DRESDEN/ROMA – An international consortium of 40 organisations from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, led by ETRA, structure financed by Smartenergy, implementing the technology of Sunfire, with the technical expertise of Enel Green Power for the green hydrogen production and also research partners like ITE (Instituto Tecnológico de la Energía), is launching ORANGE.BAT, an ambitious initiative to incorporate green hydrogen into the ceramics industry in Europe.
ORANGE.BAT can count on the strategic institutional support from the Generalitat Valenciana, the Government of the Comunitat Valenciana, which is a member of the consortium.
The lighthouse project ORANGE.BAT sets the path for the full decarbonization of an energy and CO2 intensive industry sector by replacing natural gas with green hydrogen as combustion fuel, and is fully driven by 26 industrial end-users from the Regional Ceramic Cluster of the Comunitat Valenciana, together with the two associations representing the whole sector (ASCER and ANFFECC).
The project consortium submitted a funding application under the EU “Green Deal Call” to help overcome the financial challenges faced by pioneering industrial-scale projects in the current ramp-up phase of the green hydrogen economy.
With sufficient funding in place, the operational start of the electrolyzer is planned by early 2024.The partnership includes major industrial players, investment firms, research centres, institutional bodies and the cluster of off takers from the ceramics industry for the hydrogen to be produced.
This enables ORANGE.BAT to cover the full value chain, from generation and storage of green hydrogen to not only the consumption of it, but also its distribution to the end-consumers.
The planned large-scale pilot plant will be deployed nearby Castellón (Spain), in one of the most important ceramic industrial clusters in Europe, concentrating 95% of the ceramic industry of Spain and 33% of the CO2 emissions of the Valencian region.
