Office building by green hydrogen, hybrid heat pump and green propane.
The branch of Hollander Techniek, a technical service provider within the utility, retail and industrial sectors, in Apeldoorn, has recently been in a unique sustainable way with the first 100% hydrogen boiler for the utility market. Never before in the Netherlands has a building leg heated with green hydrogen. Hollander Techniek’s head office from 1998 with a total area of 5,500 m2 offers space for 400 employees. Hydrogen heating is intended as a pilot project for the application of hydrogen in larger buildings and has a duration of at least 2 years.
Existing and new building of Hollander Techniek
Due to an expansion need, in addition to the current building, Hollander Techniek is expected to use a new building with a total of 3,000 m2 on the same plot in 2025. Because both buildings are delivered without natural gas, in addition to the boiler that runs on 100% green hydrogen, heating is used via a hybrid heat pump and a boiler that runs on green propane gas. The application is only used as a supplement on very cold days.
First producer in the Netherlands
With this pilot, Remeha is the first manufacturer in the Netherlands to a higher capacity hydrogen boiler. Hollander Techniek uses a Quinta Ace H 2 and 2 100%, a 100% hydrogen boiler with a capacity of up to 40kW. Supplemented with an Effenca MT40 heat pump, two Quinta Ace 45 boilers – in a so-called cascade setup – which are controlled by a miTera Plus system controller. The entire system is energy neutral.
Preparing the building, customer and staff for a sustainable future.
Hollander Techniek has been working for years to make natural replacement moments more sustainable.
Erik Hollander, general manager, explains the situation: In addition to a new building under construction, we also want to take the step to heat our current building even more sustainably and reduce our CO 2 emissions.
“That wasn’t that easy. Due to the insulation value of our existing building, the limited availability of electricity at the Apeldoorn-Noord business park, combined with the electrification of our vehicle fleet and also the capacity requirements of the building under construction, heating with all-electric heat pumps proved not to be possible. After consultation with our Apeldoorn partner Remeha, manufacturer of sustainable indoor climate solutions, a new system solution was chosen. All solutions together – including our existing WKO system – help us achieve our ambition to make our buildings CO 2 neutral by 2025.
Hollander talks about a second important motivation: “We want to be at the forefront of the energy transition, which is why it is very important for us to gain a lot of knowledge about hydrogen: what is involved, how do we train our people and how do we train them? to work with hydrogen safely? That is why we choose to make our own business premises more sustainable and to use hydrogen.”
Remeha has extensive experience in hydrogen projects.
Remeha started developing the first hydrogen boiler for homes in 2017. Since 2019, Remeha has gained-in-deperten experience in heating homes and apartments with hydrogen. For example, in 2019 Remeha involved was in heating an apartment complex in Rozenburg with hydrogen. At the time, this was the first hydrogen application in the world in a residential building. This was followed by hydrogen successful projects in existing and new homes.
Hydrogen projects for utility buildings are the logical next step. Remeha uses proven natural gas boiler platforms to control hydrogen boilers for both residential and non-residential buildings, which also measures the highest standards in combination with heat pumps or propane. The well-known Quinta platform is available for the utility market, which is scalable to larger capacities.
Remeha has developed three 100% hydrogen boilers with different capacities for pilot projects: the Tzerra Ace H 2 and 2 100% 28C, the Tzerra Ace H 2 and 2 34C and the Quinta Ace H 2 and 2 – 100% 45. Remeha is awaiting the availability of infrastructure and the law and regulations to commercial introduce hydrogen boilers on the market.
Maurice Meulenbrugge, product manager renewable gas at Remeha is happy with this new project:
“At Remeha we believe in several paths to sustainability: gases, electricity and heating networks. We see the solution in the combined use of energy carriers, appropriate to the environment and existing infrastructure. Hydrogen is a promising energy carrier. Particularly in utility applications, where the required power is often high, we have the opportunity to significantly reduce CO 2 emissions with hydrogen. That is why we are pleased to be able to run this pilot this project with Hollander Techniek, especially because it concerns hydrogen that is produced with energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy.”
Hydrogen in hybrid system solution is new
Meulenbrugge talks about a second news in this project: “The hybrid setup is a national first. Never before has a hybrid heat pump, a 100% hydrogen boiler and two supporting propane boilers in a cascade arrangement, leg centrally controlled by a system controller. With this project, Remeha demonstrates that hydrogen can be part of the comfortable heating of so business premises and creates a role for hydrogen in sustainable system solutions. In this way we contribute to creating a better living environment.”
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