Renewable HYdrogen and MEthanol Bavaria

RHYME Bavaria

WACKER is beginning the work of defossilizing its industrial production processes – with renewable hydrogen.

Global warming is one of the most urgent social and economic challenges of our time, and we can only fight it successfully by working together, pooling our innovative strength and scaling up new low-CO2 technologies. WACKER is prepared to do its part to meet Paris Agreement targets and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – and through our planned production and use of green hydrogen, we intend to take decisive steps toward defossilizing our own production.

Dr. Hartel, President & CEO of Wacker Chemie AG

Our RHYME Bavaria goal is to narrow our carbon footprint even further. By producing green hydrogen for industrial use, we are making a vital contribution toward markedly reducing fossil raw materials in chemical processes and products.

Dr. Christian Hartel, President & CEO of Wacker Chemie AG

Sustainably produced hydrogen and methanol

As part of the RHYME (renewable hydrogen and methanol) Bavaria project, WACKER is planning to construct a plant complex that will produce green hydrogen and renewable methanol at its Burghausen site. One component of the planned complex is a 20-megawatt electrolysis plant that will generate green hydrogen from water and renewable energy. Plans also call for a synthesis plant for combining this green hydrogen with carbon dioxide from existing processes to produce renewable methanol. The expected capacity of the synthesis plant is 15,000 metric tons per year.

Hydrogen and methanol both serve as a basis for manufacturing additional products for applications such as silicones or polysilicon. Compared with existing methanol production methods, the new process could cut CO2
emissions by 100 percent.

The Project in Numbers

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20 MW

PEM electrolysis

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15 kt/a

renewable methanol

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20 kt/a

CO2 as a raw material

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100 %

fewer CO2 emissions than the current process

The Project

Capital expenditures for the RHYME project come to €100 million. WACKER requires public funds to be able to immediately start and finance the project.
Subsidized operating costs in particular are essential in the short term. In addition to funding approval, the cost of electricity will also play an important role in the success of the project. Electricity needs to cost less than 4 cents per kWh in the medium term for climate-friendly production methods such as these to be cost-effective.

Read the related press release here.

Our Partners:

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Bavarian Research Alliance Bayernets - erdgas transport systeme SFC energy Renewable Hydrogen Coalition CropEnergies AG Rohrdorfer Zement (German-language website only)
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Contact

We would be happy to assist you with any questions you may have concerning the RHYME Bavaria project.

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