Safety Issues and an Accident delayed Linde's Green Hydrogen Plant for Years | Industry Decarbonization Newsletter
Safety Issues and an Accident delayed Linde's Green Hydrogen Plant for Years<br>An Electrolyzer at the chemical site in Leuna, Germany, was supposed to start producing Hydrogen in 2022. Extensive repairs due to safety concerns and an accident in late 2025 caused a multi-year delay. Behind the scenes, the once close partnership between Linde and the electrolyzer manufacturer ITM Power is showing cracks.<br>Aug 20 2026
Hydrogen made from Fossil Fuels: Linde's Steam Methane Reformer in Leuna. (Image: Hanno Böck)In January 2021, the company Linde announced<br>that "it will build, own and operate the world's largest PEM<br>electrolyzer plant at the Leuna Chemical Complex in Germany. [...]<br>The electrolyzer will be built by ITM Linde Electrolysis GmbH, a joint venture between Linde and ITM Power,<br>using high-efficiency PEM technology.<br>The plant is due to start production in the second half of 2022."
Today, four years after the initially targeted production start, Linde has produced hardly any green Hydrogen<br>in Leuna. The company has remained mostly silent about the project in recent years. With<br>help from an inquiry by a member of the parliament of Saxony Anhalt, the state where the Leuna chemical complex is located,<br>I can exclusively reveal details. The project was delayed by redesigns necessary<br>due to safety concerns. Furthermore, in late 2025, an accident occured.
Linde is already a major producer of Hydrogen in Leuna. However, its production, like almost all Hydrogen<br>production today, relies on fossil fuels. Linde's existing Hydrogen production plant in Leuna uses steam methane reforming utilizing fossil gas.<br>While Hydrogen is often discussed as a climate solution, this existing production of fossil Hydrogen,<br>also called "grey" Hydrogen, is a major source of CO2 emissions.
"Green" Hydrogen refers to Hydrogen made by using renewable electricity<br>to split water into its components, Hydrogen and Oxygen, in<br>a process called electrolysis.
An Electrolyzer instead of a new Steam Reformer
Linde's existing plant supplies grey Hydrogen to various customers within the Leuna chemical complex and a<br>nearby oil refinery operated by TotalEnergies. A few years ago, Linde still had plans to expand its production<br>of climate-damaging grey Hydrogen. However, Linde dropped plans for another steam reformer and instead<br>announced its electrolyzer in 2021.
According to Linde, the electrolyzer would have the capacity to produce around 3,200 tons of Hydrogen<br>annually. For comparison, Linde's existing fossil Hydrogen production has a capacity of around 55,000 tons. Therefore, the electrolyzer could replace around six percent of the existing fossil Hydrogen production.
Since its initial announcement in 2021, Linde has remained largely silent about the project's progress. In<br>2023, the public television station MDR reported on delays for the project.<br>Linde did not comment on MDR's inquiries.<br>However, the 2022 annual report of ITM Power,<br>the producer of the electrolyzers, confirmed the MDR report:<br>"Unfortunately, delivery of this project has been delayed due to a<br>number of factors, including supply chain constraints, changes to Leuna's site requirements, and both<br>manufacturing and testing delays."
Early on, Linde had announced an offtake agreement<br>for its green Hydrogen with the Norwegian ferry company Norled. A passenger ferry near Stavanger<br>in Norway, the MF Hydra, was supposed to be powered by Liquefied Hydrogen made in Linde's new electrolyzer.<br>While the MF Hydra<br>started its service in 2023, it certainly cannot be powered by Hydrogen from an electrolyzer that is not operational.<br>I covered the MF Hydra in 2025.<br>Norled remains silent about the source of its Hydrogen fuel.
During my investigation into the MF Hydra, I strongly suspected that the electrolyzer in Leuna was still<br>not operational,<br>but I couldn't confirm it. Nobody involved wanted to answer questions about the project's status.
Linde's green Hydrogen plant received substantial subsidies from public sources. The German government and the state of<br>Saxony Anhalt supported the project with around 15 million Euros.
Earlier this year, during a trade fair in Leuna, I received hints that there had been further delays and that<br>the electrolyzer plant was still not operational. Kerstin Eisenreich, a member of the local<br>parliament of Saxony-Anhalt for the Left Party (Die Linke), subsequently asked the state government several questions about<br>the project and the subsidies.
The answer, written by the Ministry for Science, Energy, Climate, and the Environment led by the<br>Social Democratic Party (SPD),<br>confirms that Linde's electrolyzer plant in Leuna has still not entered regular commercial operations.<br>According to the reply, a first attempted start-up in September 2022, still within the initially announced timeline,<br>was interrupted.
Start-up interrupted "due to a safety-related...