SalalaH2's consortium partners (OQ, Marubeni, Linde and Dutco) will invest $1 billion bringing their green product export hub to life in Salalah, southern Oman. First announced in October 2021, the project features 1 GW of wind and solar capacity (new build & existing), which will power 400 MW of electrolysers, feeding an existing ammonia production plant owned & operated by OQ.
Uniper and Novatek have signed a long-term supply agreement to transport up to 1.2 million tonnes of blue ammonia annually from Novatek's to-be-built blue ammonia plant in Siberia to Uniper's planned "climate-friendly" hydrogen hub in Wilhelmshaven.
Hive Hydrogen and Linde will lead the development & construction of a $4.6 billion, 780,000 tonnes per year solar ammonia export facility located next to the Port of Ngqura in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. A dedicated solar farm (with battery storage) will be built nearby and power hydrogen production via electrolysis, air separation and ammonia production via Haber Bosch. Desalinated seawater will be supplied from off-site. Once produced, the ammonia will be stored for export from the adjacent Ngqura Harbour.
Total Eren will lead development of the H2 Magallanes project in southern Chile. Up to 10 GW of onshore wind capacity will power 8 GW of electrolysers, a desalination plant, an ammonia production plant and port facilities to export the product to local and global markets. At full capacity, 4.4 million tonnes of renewable ammonia will be produced every year. Although H2 Magallanes is still in the pre-feasability stage, it will be launched in 2025, with the aim to begin hydrogen electrolysis in 2027.
H2 Green will develop a renewable energy hub at the Port of Shoreham in West Sussex. The initial focus will be the electrification and use of hydrogen fuel in the Port's vehicle fleet (heavy forklifts and trucks), before expanding to accommodate the ~800 heavy goods vehicles that enter the port daily. The second phase will be an ammonia import facility to meet growing demands for hydrogen fuel in the surrounds. In Australia, the Geelong Hydrogen Hub will be developed by CAC-H2, a developer who is also planning two carbon-negative, waste-to-ammonia projects in Australia. The Geelong Hub includes multiple, new-build infrastructure elements including import/export & cracking facilities. Similar to Shoreham, import of green ammonia to meet growing demand for hydrogen fuel is the second phase of the project.
A Fertiglobe-led consortium has selected US-based Plug Power to supply 100 MW of PEM electrolysers for a new green ammonia project adjacent to EBIC's ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. At full capacity, the project will generate enough green hydrogen feedstock to produce 90,000 tonnes of ammonia per year. The consortium partners are targeting a start date of 2024 for operations, though enough construction work will be completed at the facility to showcase it at next year's COP.
South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced ammonia coal co-combustion will be operational in over half the country's coal-fired power generating units by 2030. The government has already set a target of 13.8 - 21.5% of national power generation coming from hydrogen & ammonia-fed gas turbines by 2050 (the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap was approved in October). To help drive the required commercialisation & technology deployment, MOTIE, KEPCO and other Korean power utilities will collaborate in a ‘Hydrogen and Ammonia Power Generation Demonstration Promotion Group’. In supply news, South Korean oil & gas major GS Energy announced this week is will join ADNOC and Japan-based Mitsui & Co. to develop the million tonne per year blue ammonia project in Al Ruwais, UAE.
Topsøe and newcomer Green Fuel will join forces to identify efficient and scalable technologies to produce green ammonia in Iceland. A coalition of organisations is also working on a new green energy park in the town of Reyðarfjörður on Iceland's east coast, with e-fuels production and use of the electrolysis by-product oxygen a major part of the plan.
The Moolawatana Renewable Hydrogen Project will be constructed on a cattle station north some 570km north of Adelaide, South Australia's capital city. Powered by a mixture of wind and solar generation, the project will connect to an export facility at Port Bonython (around 500km in distance) via pipeline. Water will be sourced from an on-site desalination plant. At this stage, the pipeline will be for dedicated hydrogen transport, and conversion to ammonia will take place at Port Bonython. The Port is being developed as a major hydrogen & ammonia export hub, with the SA state government recently shortlisting seven major projects totaling 1.5 million tonnes per year green hydrogen export.
A group of 28 global organisations (H2Zero) announced significant new pledges to drive the development of the global hydrogen industry at COP26 last week. On the supply side, the pledges add up to 18 million tonnes per year "lower carbon" hydrogen landing in global markets, displacing fossil hydrogen, conventional transport fuel and natural gas for industrial heating applications. On the demand side (including the use of lower carbon hydrogen for fertiliser, chemicals and explosives production), the pledges add up to 1.6 million tonnes. Of particular interest is Yara's pledge to source &/or produce at least 3 million tonnes of reduced carbon ammonia by 2030.