The notion of a circular economy, which involves maximising the efficient and sustainable use of natural resources, is becoming increasingly popular in Europe. This also entails recycling and reusing waste streams as a commodity in manufacturing. One innovative approach is to produce hydrogen from waste streams and use it in various areas including the chemical industry. This would enable industrial carbon dioxide emissions to be reduced.

Located in the Netherlands, the FUREC project aims to develop a waste-to-hydrogen plant at the Chemelot industrial site in Limburg. The objective is to process waste streams from the region and convert it to circular and green hydrogen, to be applied in the chemical sector. The project is situated in the heart of Euregio, the tri-country area formed by Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands.

The Dutch Province of Limburg and the Brightlands Chemelot Campus are on a joint mission to spur the circular economy in the region. The FUREC project has the potential to play an important role in this endeavour. It aims to supply industrial buyers with circular hydrogen, making a contribution to the chemical sector's decarbonisation and sustainability.

Through the use of innovative and commercially available technologies the waste-to-hydrogen plant will be able to process a wide range of waste types, and supplement small-scale recycling technologies. By using residual waste as a commodity, in this way, 280 million cubic metres of natural gas could be saved every year. This represents the annual consumption of 200,000 households.

This is how Furec can make a contribution to scaling back carbon dioxide emissions through the circular use of waste. Plans also exist to connect FUREC to the future hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure.

RWE is involved in developing the circular economy in the Netherlands

• A waste-to-hydrogen plant is being developed by the FUREC project in Limburg.
• The plant will be designed to process waste streams from the region and convert it to circular and green hydrogen.
• To this end, RWE is working with the chemical sector in the Netherlands.
• FUREC  could supply hydrogen to chemical parks such as Chemelot.

Gasification of residuals and conversion to hydrogen

• Waste and residuals could replace natural gas as a commodity.
• FUREC can process a broad spectrum of waste streams.
• The innovative and patented use of commercially available technologies will put FUREC in a position to convert residential waste to circular, green hydrogen.