The Energy Innovation Park is a business park with a focus on businesses (start-ups, SME’s and international players) in innovative and existing energy technology.
It is an attractive location for companies from both inside and outside the region, especially due to the clustering of energy-related companies and projects. The park offers an excellent energy infrastructure for high-quality heating, connection to the national gas grid and a high-voltage grid (150 kV).
InVesta: The future for renewable gases is now!
Prominently located at the park is InVesta, an expertise center for biomass and gasification technology. Entrepreneurs, researchers and government work together on sustainable and innovative renewable gas initiatives. The focus is on technological developments in the field of biomass gasification and broad application of the gases produced with the aim to ensure structural reinforcement of the biomass gasification chain in the Netherlands.
InVesta promotes, facilitates and connects parties to develop and market innovations in the biomass gasification chain. InVesta is of interest to parties wishing to test and demonstrate techniques in the chain. InVesta makes facilities available where pilots and demos can be tested and presented. InVesta is looking for new cost-efficient technologies to accelerate the development towards large-scale commercial application of ‘syngas’ or ‘product gas’. This applies to the complete chain from biomass to end product. This includes the preparation of (new) biomass feedstocks, all technologies for gasification and the use of syngas to all kinds of renewable products.
Liquid hydrogen: the next step in the hydrogen economy
The company HYGRO will operate the first hydrogen wind turbine in the world in the North of the province Noord-Holland in 2020. The Energy Innovation Park will be one of the following production sites. Various potential customers of HYGRO indicated that they prefer liquefied (cryogenic) hydrogen.
High-pressure hydrogen is todays standard for storage and transport of hydrogen, from production to end-user. The disadvantages are the high costs of the storage and the relative low energy density. The – much higher – energy density of liquefied hydrogen could offer significant benefits for the use of hydrogen for heavy duty users such as vessels and trucks, and saves costs in transport and storage. If the challenges of the high costs of liquefying hydrogen could be solved (cryogenic, -253°C), liquefied hydrogen will be the next step in the hydrogen economy.
For HYGRO, liquefied hydrogen could mean lower costs for storage and transport, making hydrogen as a fuel even more attractive. In making this transition possible HYGRO is looking for parties who are able to liquefy hydrogen cost-effective with small scale liquefaction plants of capacities around 40kg/hour. Besides that, HYGRO is looking for parties that can offer all the required equipment for storage, filling infrastructure and techniques for the application of liquefied hydrogen in vessels and trucks.
In summary: Living Lab Alkmaar aims to develop and market innovations in the chain of biomass gasification and to develop a blueprint for liquefied hydrogen in the transport sector, from production to end user.
