Renewable: Wacker plans expansion at Burghausen

MUNICH—For chemical companies, the path to sustainability is traveled in steps, with one innovation typically leading to another.

Such is the case with Wacker Chemie A.G., a German multinational that has its sights set on the Rhyme Bavaria project, a 20-megawatt plant at Wacker's Burghausen site that would ultimately produce renewable hydrogen and methanol, the latter of which is a key raw material in silicone production.

The goal is net-zero CO2 production for the company by 2045.

To get there, and to get the project off the ground, the company is seeking funding in the "double-digit" millions of dollars range from the European Union, specifically from the European Commission's EU Innovation Fund.

"Our Rhyme Bavaria goal is to narrow our carbon footprint even further," said Wacker CEO Christian Hartel. "By producing green hydrogen and using it as a material, we are making an essential contribution toward markedly reducing fossil resources in chemical processes and products."

After failing to qualify for money from the EU fund in 2020, Wacker reapplied March 7 for funding for the Burghausen site. Overall, Wacker expects the investment to be about $110.2 million for the expansion.

"The EU has now adjusted its selection criteria as well as increasing annual funding from $1.1 billion to $1.7 billion, which makes it possible to fund a medium-sized, albeit highly innovative project such as Rhyme Bavaria," Hartel said. "That's why we think resubmission of this trailblazing project stands a good chance of receiving the necessary EU funding. Rhyme Bavaria is a key building block in meeting our ambitious climate-protection and sustainability targets."

The facility will use electrolysis to make hydrogen from water using renewable electricity. Wacker said it will use CO2 from existing, legacy production processes to turn the green hydrogen into renewable methanol.

Rhyme Bavaria is estimated to produce 15,000 metric tons of methanol per year when it is completed, and could "eliminate CO2 emissions completely," Wacker said.

"The quantities of carbon dioxide required by Rhyme Bavaria would no longer be emitted into the atmosphere," Wacker said March 7. "Instead, they would be recycled as a raw material in a chemical production process."

Hartel said Wacker is re-applying for the EU money because investment grants were not enough. Operating costs also will require subsidies.

"That's why we need state funding to make the move to a renewable hydrogen economy possible," he said.

An electricity price of about 4 cents per kilowatt-hour is required to make the green hydrogen "so that this kind of energy-intensive project does not require funding in order to be profitable." However, Hartel said electricity costs in Germany are far higher than what competitors pay in other parts of the world.

"As an energy-intensive company, we have been in favor of an industrial electricity price for many years now in order to maintain our international competitiveness—even as we accelerate our move toward net-zero status," Hartel said. "Our processes are among the most efficient in the world—making them some of the most economical too."

In addition, renewable energy sources to generate the electrolysis to produce the hydrogen (that is combined with CO2 to make the methanol that makes the silicone) also require further expansion.

"A project such as Rhyme Bavaria might be the initial step in defossilizing chemical processes and products in Bavaria's so-called chemical triangle," he said.