Kola NPP still plans to launch hydrogen test complex in 2025

MURMANSK. Dec 26 (Interfax) - The Kola Nuclear Power Plant in the Murmansk region still plans to launch a bench test complex for the production of hydrogen in 2025, Vasily Omelchuk, the nuclear plant's head, said at a press conference.

"We focused above all on hydrogen for export when the hydrogen program was announced in our country. Export is now closed for us, so some uncertainty surrounds hydrogen projects," Omelchuk said.

"We plan to launch the first stage of the bench test complex in 2025," he said, adding that the hydrogen customer still needed to be identified.

The Rosenergoatom Concern is conducting an environmental impact assessment into the Kola NPP bench test complex between April 2023 and April 2024.

The documentation said the test complex's capacity should be 200 normal cubic meters per hour. The production method is water electrolysis.

Omelchuk said in November 2022 that a facility with capacity of 200 tonnes of hydrogen per year could be commissioned in 2025.

Kola NPP said in December 2022 that it would host the pilot hydrogen production with a new environmentally friendly technology, and that pilot production had been launched. Proton exchange membranes were used instead of alkaline electrolyzers. The hydrogen purity was 99.999%.

Kola NPP is located 200 km south of Murmansk, on the shore of Lake Imandra. The NPP is the largest energy provider on the Kola Peninsula, supplying electricity to the Murmansk region and Karelia, and generating about 60% of in the Murmansk region's electricity. The plant has four power units with VVER-440 reactors.