One campus, one community, one purpose.

The history of Shell Technology Centre Amsterdam spans over 100 years. Built on innovative ideas, a depth of experience, broad research and forward thinking, this campus is set up to successfully navigate the energy transition.

campus

The energy transition needs collaboration to solve complex challenges, to advance the research and development of new technologies and to scale-up existing technologies for various industrial applications. Working together in a thriving and vibrant campus, the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam community is where the world’s greatest minds solve the world’s energy challenges.

The building is the size of 13 football fields and full of laboratories, workshops, test halls and offices. 1,000 people from more than 50 countries continue to learn, develop, and innovate with one purpose: to solve the world’s biggest energy challenges through collaboration and technological innovation.

Together with Shell, start-ups, scale-ups, research institutes, academia and mature companies have the opportunity to collaborate and innovate, developing energy solutions for today and tomorrow.

  

Map of prime position in Amsterdam

Location, location, location

Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam is in a prime position in Amsterdam just a short ferry ride across from Central Station and just 20km from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport – making the campus well-connected to any destination in the world.

  

The greater Amsterdam area is also renowned for its talent pool, particularly in digitalisation, systems integration and technology upscaling. This enables Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam to access the skills needed to navigate the energy transition.

  

Solutions innovated here

Sustainable synthetic kerosene

The initiative to produce 500 litres of sustainable, synthetic kerosene came from the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management as a step to making aviation more sustainable. Shell accepted the challenge and made synthetic kerosene using green hydrogen and CO2 which was used on a KLM flight to Madrid.

Flying on 100% synthetic kerosene is not yet allowed, the maximum is currently 50% so the synthetic kerosene was mixed with regular kerosene before use.

This is still a long way from large-scale implementation but it is the critical first step.

Green hydrogen

Hydrogen is a major chemical building block in the manufacturing of many products. Being able to produce it by electrolysis based on sustainable electricity (“green hydrogen”) is a positive way to limit the resulting CO2 emissions.

At Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam, green hydrogen is produced with electricity generated by the 232 solar panels located on its roof which are dedicated to this purpose. With this pilot, we can demonstrate that the integration of electrolysers and renewable power will also work if we do it on a scale 2000 times greater. This hydrogen is split for use between a major test installation and a hydrogen pump providing fuel for cars. We are a strong believer in an H2 economy. We have two hydrogen cars that can be potentially used by the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam community for business mileage and the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam may support frequent use of H2 cars through our onsite green H2 fueling station.

This pump is the first in the Amsterdam region to represent the entire green hydrogen chain, from energy generated by the sun to the emission of just water vapour from the car.

Circular plastic

Pyrolysis

A technique, known as pyrolysis, turns hard to recycle plastic waste into liquid. Shell transforms this liquid with inhouse new technology into suitable feedstock to convert it back to plastics.

3D printing

3d Printing Collecting a Ready to Go Spare Part

3D printing can optimise the energy industry’s spare part management to significantly reduce costs and emissions.

At Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam, we are progressing 3D printing to print spare parts on demand, develop novel equipment and rapidly prototype engineering designs. We are developing in-house capability to bridge the gap between 3D printing manufacturers and large-scale deployment in industry. Thanks to the unique knowledge and facilities we developed progressively, in 2021, Shell became the first company in Europe to have certified an in-house 3D printed pressure equipment in accordance with the European Pressure Equipment Directive (PED). Read here how we worked with LRQA on this 4-year research projects and developed the knowledge to also help our partners certify their printed parts for commercialisation and support technology development and deployment.

  

  

solar panel

A building for today to solve the challenges of tomorrow

The Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam has 364 solar panels which, together with electricity from Dutch offshore wind farms, provides the building with energy.

The temperature is controlled via underground heat and cold storage together with heat pumps. In winter, the heat sources supply hot water to heat the building and once this has cooled, it is stored in the cold sources in the soil which then cool the building in the summer. When the water is heated up again, it is returned to the hot springs for storage.

This combination of sustainable energy systems ensures that the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam is sustainable but having a facility that reflects the ambitions of those it houses does not stop at a building run on green energy. ETCA has been awarded LEED Gold certification. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and is a globally recognised certification system for building sustainability which looks at the building itself and also the processes that take place inside the building.

  

The Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam in the environment

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zoomed picture of a tree
Detail 1

Biodiversity

The flora and fauna around and on the building contribute to the biodiversity of the area. The roofs of the first floor are covered with seven different types of plants chosen for their rainwater collection ability to alleviate pressure on the sewers during times of heavy rainfall and to attract all kinds of insects.

Detail 2

Ecosystem

Nesting boxes for birds strengthen the area’s avian ecosystem and planted trees connect the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam site with the environment.

Detail 3

Location and ethos

Additionally, the coffee bars, restaurants and activities in this upcoming part of Amsterdam make the Energy Transition Campus Amsterdam a great location to work. The building, location and ethos of the campus represent the goals we are pushing forward to meet.

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