Green hydrogen is experiencing an enormous upswing in the current energy crisis. The increased demand will be difficult to meet on a local level. So, right on time, the Port of Antwerp-Bruges is preparing to bring large quantities of the climate-friendly energy carrier from non-European countries to Western Europe.
Saudi Aramco and Sinopec have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that covers multiple areas of potential collaboration in Saudi Arabia.
Major Brazilian chemical company Unigel is planning to invest $120 million in developing a site for green hydrogen production.
UK sustainable technologies group Johnson Matthey plans to invest £80 million in a gigafactory at its site in Royston to scale up the manufacture of hydrogen fuel cell components. The facility is expected to be in operation by the first half of 2024.
Shell is going ahead with plans to bring Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant on stream by 2025.
Yara International has outlined an ambitious growth plan for its Clean Ammonia business, with “significant” investment decisions targeted over the next three years.
Hungarian oil, gas and petrochemicals group MOL has teamed up with US hydrogen systems supplier Plug Power to build a green hydrogen production plant in Százhalombatta. MOL is investing €22 million in the project.
Ineos is pressing full speed ahead to implement its investment strategy for green hydrogen across Europe. In its latest move, the company said it is participating in a project with SGN, the network that distributes natural and “green” gas across the south of England as well as Scotland, to build a UK-wide delivery network for hydrogen.
Johnson Matthey and Schaeffler, a leading supplier to the automotive and industrial industries, are working with Bekaert, a provider of porous transport layers for proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers, and research institute TNO to bring a step-change in the efficiency of electroyzers used to produce hydrogen.
Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy group Masdar and Egypt’s Hassan Allam Utilities have signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with leading Egyptian state-based organizations to develop green hydrogen production plans in the Suez Canal Economic Zone and on the Mediterranean coast.
US engineering and construction group Black & Veatch has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vietnamese renewable energy developer The Green Solutions (TGS) to advance green hydrogen and green ammonia production in Vietnam.
US multinational gases group Air Products has announced plans to build, own and operate a green liquid hydrogen plant in Casa Grande, Arizona, USA. The zero-carbon facility, which will have capacity of 10 t per day, is expected to go on stream in 2023. It will also include a terminal for distributing the gas to the mobility market in California and other locations.
Australian engineering group Worley has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with technology heavyweights ABB and IBM to develop an integrated, digitally enabled solution that will assist energy companies in building green hydrogen assets more quickly, cheaply, and safely, and operating them more efficiently.
Fertiglobe, the joint venture formed between Dutch fertilizer and industrial chemicals group OCI and the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in October 2019, has signed a deal to collaborate with renewable energy companies Masdar and ENGIE to develop a green hydrogen facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
World’s largest chemical producer BASF is creating a new company dedicated to renewable energy. The new firm, BASF Renewable Energy, which is to be based at the group’s Ludwigshafen, Germany headquarters, will steer internal projects as well as collaboration with external partners.
British energy giant BP has decided to build a large-scale plant to produce green hydrogen from renewable feedstocks, wind, water and solar energy at its Teesside complex in northeast England. The plans are in line with the London-based group’s drive to move away from fossil fuels, in company with other global petrochemical powerhouses.
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) have announced that 28 companies, including the likes of energy industry giants Shell and BP, have pledged to grow the hydrogen market.
An international consortium comprising the alternative energy business of Oman’s OQ, Japanese conglomerate Marubeni, industrial gases group Linde and engineering firm Dutco has signed a joint agreement to develop a green hydrogen and green ammonia project in the Salalah Free Zone.
If you follow the daily news on climate protection and the promotion of hydrogen technologies, you sometimes get a sense of déjà vu: Didn't this already exist 20 years ago? What was implemented at that time? What sustainable hydrogen-based technologies can we expect today?
BP has agreed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with four new potential customers for its proposed clean hydrogen production facility in Teesside, said to be the UK’s largest when it goes on stream.
The EU Commission’s ambitious plan for a European Green Deal, launched shortly before the pandemic struck in early 2020, aims to make the continent the world’s first climate-neutral region by 2050. The goals spelled out in January last year call for reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% up to 2030, compared with 1990 levels.
Europe wants to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and decouple its economic growth from the consumption of natural resources – this is what the members of the European Union committed to in the so-called Green Deal in December 2019.
German energy group Uniper is carrying out a feasibility study on establishing a national hub for hydrogen in Wilhelmshaven. Plans include an import terminal, which would be equipped with an ammonia splitter for producing green hydrogen. It will also be connected to the planned hydrogen network.
French multinational gases group Air Liquide has announced what it termed “ambitious” environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives to act for a sustainable future. The objectives include firm targets to reduce CO2 emissions and accelerate hydrogen development.
Seven companies from the European GET H2 hydrogen initiative, including chemical producer Evonik, have established a consortium to help promote industrial offtake of climate-friendly green hydrogen from renewable energies.
To take advantage of the opportunity hydrogen presents, the European chemical industry must engage in the emerging hydrogen market now, setting up specific pilots, develop an appropriate partner and ecosystem network and, most crucially, adapt the R&D portfolios and investment plans needed to capture a share of the hydrogen opportunity.
OMV and Kommunalkredit Austria – a bank specializing in infrastructure and energy financing – are investing in the construction of Austria’s largest electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen. Total investment will be about €25 million, which will be split equally between both partners.
Linde intends to further expand its hydrogen business by investing in electrolysis capacities and infrastructure.
Norwegian energy group Equinor is leading a project in Humber, UK, to produce hydrogen from natural gas in combination with carbon capture and storage (CCS). The Hydrogen to Humber Saltend (H2H Saltend) project will be the start of a decarbonized industrial cluster in the Humber region, the UK’s largest by emissions.
