Repsol debuts renewable hydrogen made from methane

Repsol has produced for the first-time renewable hydrogen using biomethane as a raw material at its Cartagena refinery, which has avoided emitting some 90 tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere.

The company has used 500 MWh of biomethane to produce 10 tonnes of renewable hydrogen that has been used to manufacture low-carbon fuels such as gasoline, diesel and paraffin for aviation.

And it has described this operation as a "first step" towards replacing conventional natural gas with sustainably sourced biomethane, made from municipal waste, for the production of renewable hydrogen.

With this procedure, the company seeks to decarbonise its processes and products.

This first industrial test carried out by Repsol will also serve as an example for the development of the system of guarantees of origin for renewable gases to be implemented in Spain, which the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge has just released for public information as a draft Royal Decree.

Repsol is transforming its industrial centres into multi-energy centres capable of converting waste and other renewable raw materials into products with a low, zero or even negative carbon footprint.

The Spanish company has carried out 230 circular economy initiatives since 2018 and aims to use four million tonnes of waste as raw material.

In October 2020, it announced the construction of Spain's first advanced biofuels plant, to be commissioned in 2023 and located in Cartagena.

And it plans to build a plant to generate biogas in the port of Bilbao.