Unigel Plans Brazil’s First Hydrogen Plant
Major Brazilian chemical company Unigel is planning to invest $120 million in developing a site for green hydrogen production.
In a first phase, Unigel will install three 20 MW standard electrolyzers provided by German technology group Thyssenkrupp Nucera at the Camacari complex. The 10,000 t/y green hydrogen output will feed a green ammonia plant of 60,000 t/y.
“This project is the first of its kind in Brazil and reinforces the pioneering spirit of Unigel to produce green molecules on an industrial scale. As Brazil is one of the world-leading countries in terms of installed renewable energy, we are pleased to enter this partnership to make green hydrogen an affordable energy vector already today,” said Thyssenkrupp Nucera’s CEO Werner Ponikwar.
The executive added that green hydrogen will only become market-ready with widespread use through large-scale production with “robust, reliable and cost-effective technologies at competitive renewable power prices.”
In the following years, Unigel plans to quadruple its production of green hydrogen to 40,000 t/y by expanding the electrolyzer plant to a multi-hundred MW facility.
Unigel said the green hydrogen will be offered to customers that want to decarbonize their production chains, for instance in the steel and oil refining industries, while the green ammonia will be used internally to make fertilizers and acrylics.
Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist
