An offshore hydrogen production pilot project being carried out by Lhyfe has produced its first kilograms of hydrogen the French company has announced. On June 20, 2023, the Sealhyfe platform was towed 20km into the Atlantic Ocean near to Central Nantes, France, where it was then connected to an offshore testing rig. The platform can produce up to 400kg of each day and uses a 1MW electrolyser from Plug Power.

Under real-world conditions, Lhyfe will now test and study the platform’s movement while it is subjected to environmental stresses. The solution’s software will also be validated as part of the pilot. Before offshore testing was carried out, the company moored the Sealhyfe at the Quai des Frégates in the Port of Saint-Nazaire to conduct benchmarking and optimization. These same tests will be conducted at sea to compare results.

By the end of 2026, Lhyfe aims to have an overall green hydrogen production capacity of 200MW, and 3GW by 2030.

“Our team – supported brilliantly by our partners – has achieved a genuine feat of technology in successfully designing this first floating green hydrogen production site,” said Matthieu Guesné, founder and CEO of Lhyfe. “We are extremely proud to be the first in the world to produce hydrogen at sea.

“This has been our wish since the launch of the company and we continue to move very quickly on offshore, which for us represents a tremendous development opportunity for mass producing hydrogen and decarbonizing industry and transport. We are continuing to build on the success we have had so far, firstly to prove to the world that transition is possible today, and of course to accelerate it.”