A company owned by the emirate of Abu Dhabi has unveiled plans to produce huge amounts of green hydrogen at Egypt’s Suez Canal Economic Zone.
The plan involves producing 100,000 tonnes per year of e-methanol for shipping in the first phase, before scaling up to 4GW of renewable hydrogen, primarily for the export of green ammonia, by 2030.
Renewable energy developer Masdar, and its local partner Hassan Allam Utilities, have signed memoranda of understanding with Egyptian state bodies to cooperate on the plans, which would see electrolysers installed at the northern and southern ends of the Suez Canal — on the Mediterranean and at Sokhna, a port on the Gulf of Suez, which leads into the Red Sea.
“In the first phase of the project, Hassan Allam Utilities and Masdar aim to establish a green hydrogen manufacturing facility, which would be operational by 2026, producing 100,000 tonnes of e-methanol annually for bunkering in the Suez Canal,” explained Amr Allam, CEO of Hassan Allam Holding.
E-methanol — derived by combining green hydrogen with captured CO2 — is emerging as a potentially key clean fuel for the highly polluting shipping industry, with market leader Maersk ordering 12 methanol-fuelled vessels, along with plans to produce the fuel at scale.
Green methanol can be said to be carbon-neutral as the CO2 is effectively recycled, while it has important advantages over the two other potential clean shipping fuels — hydrogen and ammonia — it is both more energy-dense by volume and easier to handle.
This is an excerpt of a story by Recharge. Read the full story here.
