May 2025| Hydrogen in France Business Update

French regions highlighted this month 

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes | Bretagne | Centre-Val de Loire | Hauts-de-France | Nouvelle Aquitaine | Occitanie | Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur 

Companies highlighted this month  
45-8 Energy | BioUpp | Cavendish Hydrogen | Eifhytec | Engie | H2V | H3 Dynamics | Hopium | HRS | Hy2gen | Hynaval | Louis Dreyfus Armateurs | Lhyfe | NatPower H | Storengy | Technip Energies | TotalEnergies | Vinci Airports   

After closing a €53 million debt financing deal last April for 4 renewable hydrogen production projects in France and Germany, Lhyfe has announced that it is opening up the financing of these same production sites to the general public. This “citizen financing” concerns 3 sites in France: a site built at Buléon in Morbihan, in operation since 2024, and 2 sites under construction: one in Isère at Le Cheylas and another in the Somme at Croixrault. 

On May 21, 45-8 Energy and Storengy held their first public information meeting to present their natural hydrogen exploration project in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, at Grand Rieu. The two companies obtained the permit for their project last March. 

Louis Dreyfus Armateurs has announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with Technip Energies. The aim of this partnership is to integrate Technip Energies’ ammonia cracking technology into Louis Dreyfus Armateurs’ FRESH vessel project. This 170-m-long vessel will have a storage capacity of 45,000 m³ of ammonia and a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes of hydrogen gas per year, thanks to ammonia cracking. The hydrogen could then be compressed and discharged on land to supply industries and heavy vehicles. 

Industry: ammonia, methanol, kerosene, steel and other derivatives and chemicals, etc. 

On the occasion of the Choose France 2025 international summit, H2V and Germany’s Hy2gen launched their joint venture H4 Marseille Fos to accelerate deployment of the H2V Fos project in Fos-sur-Mer. The two partners plan to produce 75,000 tonnes of e-SAF per year from 2030, using Methanol-to-Jet technology. The project would require the installation of 390 MW of electrolysis capacity, 1.5 billion euros of investment and 165 new jobs. 

Mobility: fuel cell and internal combustion engine for road, railway, maritime, aviation

 The COSMHYC DEMO hydrogen filling station has been inaugurated in Sorigny, in the Centre-Val de Loire region of France. The station was commissioned by Cavendish Hydrogen, a Danish manufacturer of hydrogen filling stations and subsidiary of Norway’s NEL. It incorporates a mechanical compressor and a thermal compressor from Eifhytec. It has a capacity of 200kg per day, with refuelling pressures ranging from 350 to 700 bar, enabling refuelling of both light commercial vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles. The project was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program via the Clean Hydrogen Partnership.   

VINCI Airports has inaugurated an aviation fuel distribution station featuring 35% sustainable aviation fuel, thanks to the construction of a semi-underground tank. Sustainable aviation fuel is produced by TotalEnergies from waste and residues from the circular economy, such as used cooking oil. 

The Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) has been validated for HRS‘s hydrogen station at the Albility Lab training center in Albi. This project is supported by Albi town council and the Communauté d’Agglomération du Grand Albigeois, with the aim of turning Albility Lab into a training center dedicated to carbon-free mobility.  

Singapore-based H3 Dynamics has announced a 25 million euro investment in Toulouse, where it is already established, to set up a fuel cell production line. These fuel cells will be used in the air transport sector, in particular for military drones.  

HyNaval has signed a memorandum of understanding with NatPower H, a European developer, for the decarbonization of the maritime sector. Under this agreement, NatPower H will provide the hydrogen supply infrastructure for HyNaval’s projects, including the construction of 20 hydrogen-powered ships by 2030. The partnership also includes a feasibility study for the deployment of hydrogen refueling stations in French ports.

R&D&I | 

Storengy has announced the successful completion of cycling tests on its HyPSTER project at Etrez in the Ain region. The project is funded by the European Union through the Clean Hydrogen Partnership. These tests, launched at the end of 2024, validated the possibility of commercial exploitation of hydrogen storage in a salt cavern by carrying out a certain cycle of variations in hydrogen pressure inside the cavern.  

Hopium has announced the completion of its Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) for its 200kw system, consisting of a 2x100kw dual cell. In bench tests, the system achieved a power output of 212kw. Hopium is aiming to commercialize its solutions as early as 2025 for niche markets such as maritime, aeronautics and certain segments of the road market.  

ENGIE‘s R&D center, Lab CRIGEN, start-up BioUpp and Clermont Auvergne INP have announced the signature of a collaborative R&D contract. The aim of this partnership is to develop methanation solutions to produce e-methane from carbon dioxide and hydrogen.