The Castellón Green Hydrogen Project is a green hydrogen production facility being developed at BP’s Castellón refinery in Spain.
The project is being developed by BP and Iberdrola via an equally-owned joint venture.
Recommended White Papers
The joint venture took the Final Investment Decision on the project in July 2024. Construction works were green lighted in September 2024. Once complete, the facility will be the largest green hydrogen project in Spain.
Castellón Green Hydrogen is expected to commence commercial operations in the second half of 2026.
The project will support the decarbonisation of BP’s Castellón Refinery operations and contribute towards the transition of the refinery into an integrated energy hub.
Castellón Green Hydrogen Project Background
In 2022, BP and Iberdrola unveiled plans to collaborate on large-scale integrated green hydrogen production in Spain, Portugal and the UK. The collaboration seeks to develop hydrogen production hubs in the three countries with combined capacity of up to 600 kilo tonnes per annum (ktpa).
The green hydrogen project at BP’s Castellón refinery forms part of the initiative.
In 2023, BP launched the green hydrogen cluster of the Valencia region (HyVal) at its Castellón refinery.
The Castellón Green Hydrogen Project will be developed at the Castellón Refinery of BP in the Valencian Community. The refinery is located in the El Serrallo Industrial Estate, Grao de Castellón, Spain.
The two companies, with the Instituto Tecnológico de la Energía, had submitted the Castellón project to the Spanish government’s hydrogen value chain PERTE call.
Additionally, the green hydrogen project received €15m in funding from Spanish Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan.
The funding was allocated by NextGenerationEU, a European Commission economic recovery package.
BP has also signed a letter of intent with the Valencian Government in 2024 to support the region with energy transition. Subsequently, a joint working committee was formed to facilitate collaboration between both parties and oversee the transformation of BP’s refinery in Castellón into an integrated energy hub.
Castellón Green Hydrogen Project Details
Castellón Green Hydrogen facility will be developed in phases.
The project will consist of electrolyser systems to produce green hydrogen using renewable electricity.
Initially, the 25MW electrolyser will consist of five modules with a capacity of 5MW each. The containerised modules will be based on the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) technology.
Under a power purchase agreement (PPA), the facility will receive 200 gigawatt hour (GWh) /year of power from photovoltaic and wind projects of Iberdrola.
The electrolyser will use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The production process will comply with the European requirements for producing renewable hydrogen under the Renewable Fuels of Non-Biological Origin (RFNBO).
The facility is expected to reduce 23,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per year. This is equivalent to the emissions of 5,000 cars over the same period.
At the site, around 2,800 tonnes of green hydrogen per year will substitute a part of the gray hydrogen generated by the refinery during operations.
The construction phase of the plant is expected to create up to 500 new direct jobs.
Future Plans
BP will explore opportunities to increase the capacity of the Castellón Green Hydrogen Project in future.
The green hydrogen produced from the project in further phases could be used in hard-to-abate industries in the Valencia region. These include the ceramics industries, chemical industries, and heavy transport.
Castellón Green Hydrogen Project Contractor
The Castellón Green Hydrogen joint venture awarded a contract to electrical equipment manufacturing company Plug Power for the delivery of PEM electrolysers.
The project will use five Plug Power’s 5MW containerised PEM electrolysers. These PEM electrolysers are designed as modular and scalable hydrogen generators.
PEM electrolysers are expected to be delivered by Plug’s Gigafactory in Rochester, New York, the US.
