Brazil-based multinational Unigel laid the cornerstone Tuesday for the world’s largest green hydrogen factory, which is expected to be operational by the end of 2023.
With investments of US$120 million, but using the company’s existing infrastructure and logistics at the Camaçari petrochemical site and the Aratu seaport, both in the northeastern state of Bahia, the plant will produce 10,000 tons of green hydrogen and 60,000 tons of “clean” ammonia per year.
“Our investment is a pioneering one, and when the green hydrogen and green ammonia plant comes on line, it will certainly be the largest in the world, and we will be at the forefront of development with Brazil, accompanying the process of decarbonization in the world,” Roberto Noronha, president of Unigel, told Efe.
In the second phase, which will begin in 2025, production at the 60,000-square-meter facility is expected to quadruple to produce 40,000 tons of green hydrogen and 240,000 tons of “clean” ammonia per year.
That same year, in 2025, Air Products’ U.S. plant is scheduled to come online in Saudi Arabia, with a US$5 billion investment to produce 650 tons of green hydrogen per day, making it the world’s largest.
Green or renewable hydrogen (H2V) is produced through the process of “water electrolysis,” which is the separation of oxygen and hydrogen, and is mainly used to produce fertilizers in agriculture but can also be used as a fuel and industrial feedstock.
BRAZIL’S POTENTIAL
“It is the energy of the future, and the world faces the challenge of generating more clean energy from the sun and wind. Brazil has the opportunity to become a supplier of clean energy on an industrial scale for the whole world with green hydrogen,” Environment Minister Joaquim Leite said at the event.
For the minister, green hydrogen strengthens the “fertile economy, not only to reduce the emission of (greenhouse) gases but also to innovate,” with a potential of 85% of the energy matrix from renewable sources such as water, wind, and solar.
Leite emphasized to journalists the potential of Brazil’s northeastern coastal states with solar, wind, and “storm-free seas,” conditions that “make it cheaper” to generate energy from these renewable sources.