Waterstof Industrie Cluster reaches 85 members

Hydrogen is trending and this translates into a constant growth of the Waterstof Industrie Cluster (Hydrogen Industry Cluster - WIC), an industrial partnership in Belgium and the Netherlands in the field of hydrogen under the coordination of WaterstofNet. The WIC now has 85 members with 11 new members in the last two months. We proudly present you INOVYN (INEOS), Bureau Veritas, Hitachi ABB, POM Oost-Vlaanderen and Antwerpen, SEA Tank Terminal, WDP, SGS, Blue1, Verwater and Air Products.

Part of INEOS, INOVYN is a large producer of vinyls. With an annual turnover of €3.1 billion, INOVYN has circa 4,200 employees and manufacturing, sales and marketing operations in 8 countries across Europe. INOVYN's portfolio consists of a wide range of leading products, divided into chlor-alkali products, general and specialty PVC, organic chlorine derivatives, salt and electrochemical and vinyl technologies. At the end of 2020, INEOS launched a new clean hydrogen business, led by INOVYN. At their production sites in Lillo and Jemeppe in Belgium, INOVYN has a significant production of co-produced hydrogen from chlorine-alkali activities.

Bureau Veritas is active in Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) in the field of Safety, Health and Environment. Bureau Veritas operates in 144 countries worldwide, spread over 1,400 offices. Bureau Veritas supports risk management and improving business performance among the more than 400,000 customers worldwide. In Belgium they operate from Antwerp and in the Netherlands from Amersfoort and Rotterdam. Bureau Veritas has the necessary accreditations and recognitions with trained, experienced and highly specialized auditors and inspectors, enabling them to offer a total package of certification and inspection services. Bureau Veritas now also wants to deliver this expertise to the hydrogen industry.

Hitachi ABB Power Grids is a technology provider with a combined heritage of almost 250 years, employing around 36,000 people in 90 countries. Headquartered in Switzerland, the business serves utility, industry and infrastructure customers across the value chain, and emerging areas like sustainable mobility, smart cities, energy storage and data centers. Hitachi ABB Power Grids aims for a stronger, smarter and greener electricity grid. They offer  innovative technologies  that enable customers to integrate renewable energy and produce and use sustainable alternative energy carriers, such as green hydrogen.

The POM Oost-Vlaanderen is pioneering for a sustainable, innovative, future-oriented and climate-healthy province of Oost-Vlaanderen. The POM develops sustainable economic projects within the framework of the socio-economic policy of the provincial government with a focus on two sectors: the logistics sector and the knowledge economy. The POM facilitates hydrogen projects that fit within this scope.

The POM Antwerp is also the instrument by which the province of Antwerp implements its socioeconomic policy. It contributes to the promotion of the socioeconomic development of the province of Antwerp, in particular through the support and implementation of socioeconomic projects including hydrogen projects.

SEA-Tank Terminal is an independent tank storage company with activities in Belgium in 8 terminals in the ports of Ghent and Antwerp. The company specializes in the development of innovative, tailor-made terminals. Specialized storage is offered for a wide range of products including vegetal oils, chemicals and mineral oils. In addition to these products, the company has also focused on the treatment and storage of alternative, sustainable fuels. The company is looking further into the future with the conviction that hydrogen will play an important role in this.

WDP offers intelligent warehouse solutions with an emphasis on developing and renting out semi-industrial and logistics real estate with activities in Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Luxembourg and Romania. In the Benelux, they are market leader in warehouse rental. WDP is looking into the possibilities of hydrogen within the logistics sector.

SGS is active in inspection, controlling, analysis and certification. SGS maintains a worldwide network of approximately 2600 offices and laboratories with more than 89,000 employees. In Belgium, the company operates at 15 locations headquartered in Antwerp and employs more than 1600 people. The controlling of petrochemical products, agricultural products and mineral products is part of their core business. SGS now also wants to apply its expertise to the hydrogen industry. 

Blue1 was founded in 2006 and specializes in the engineering and construction of AdBlue storage/distribution systems and telemetry solutions for automatic inventory tracking. Because of these fast-growing and dynamic markets, they are continuously evaluating and (re)engineering the products to deliver high-quality and innovative solutions tailored to the customer. Because of this innovative vision with the focus, "clean energy", Blue1 wants to focus on solutions for hydrogen refueling stations in the future.

Verwater is a global contractor for industrial and petrochemical installations, specialized in tank maintenance and tank construction. They offer services such as jacking of tanks, civil works, piping, turnarounds, painting, E&I, E&A. Today approximately 1,000 people work for Verwater worldwide, which together generate an annual turnover of approximately 200 million euros. In Belgium Verwater is mainly active in the ports of Antwerp and Ghent and in the Netherlands in both the Port of Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The company also wants to focus on the storage of hydrogen in the future.

Air Products is a global industrial gas supplier, present in 50 countries and operating 60 hydrogen production plants including a liquid hydrogen plant in Rotterdam. With more than 60 years of hydrogen experience, Air Products is on the forefront of hydrogen energy technology development. As the world’s largest supplier of merchant hydrogen and a leader in hydrogen energy (>100 fuel stations and > 10 million H2 fills), Air Products SmartFuel® technology brings safe, reliable and cost-effective hydrogen to hydrogen powered applications around the world.

As the Hydrogen Industry Cluster, we are very pleased with the joining of these key players! As a growing hydrogen network, we remain committed to optimal knowledge sharing, the search for and development of hydrogen projects and to act as a preferred point of contact for governments in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Our WIC managers Isabel François,  Yannick Van den Broeck,  Davine Janssen  and  Samira Farahani are ready to support you in your hydrogen ambitions. Are you also interested in joining the cluster? Contact them or fill out this form!