Fertiglobe, Masdar, Engie to develop green hydrogen for ammonia production

LONDON (ICIS)–Nitrogen fertilizer major Fertiglobe on Wednesday signed a collaboration agreement with Masdar and ENGIE to co-develop green hydrogen for ammonia production at Al Ruwais in the United Arab Emirates.

The trio will study the development of a “globally cost-competitive green hydrogen facility targeted to be operational by 2025 with capacity of up to 200MW to supply Fertiglobe’s ammonia production plants”.

The project aims to accelerate the decarbonisation roadmap of the world’s largest seaborne exporter of ammonia and urea, and boost the company’s position as a global front-runner in green ammonia production.

Fertiglobe – a strategic partnership between Dutch group OCI and the UAE’s ADNOC – will work with Masdar, a renewable energy firm, and ENGIE, a low-carbon energy and services provider, on the project.

Ahmed El-Hoshy, CEO of Fertiglobe said: “Abu Dhabi is an ideal location to produce green hydrogen given the country’s commitment to a low carbon future, its unique renewables profile and its strategic geographic location.

“The project marks another milestone for Fertiglobe’s green ammonia portfolio and follows the announcement last month of our new 100MW electrolyser in Egypt.

“Ammonia is the dominant energy carrier for hydrogen. With green hydrogen seen as essential to support decarbonisation of industry, food, transport and energy, there is a huge opportunity for green ammonia to deliver green hydrogen all over the world to fuel the clean economy and meet growing demand for renewable sources of clean energy.”

The three companies will study the development, design, financing, procurement, construction, operation, and maintenance of an industrial-scale green hydrogen facility, with Fertiglobe the sole long term off-taker.

Fertiglobe boasts a combined production capacity of 6.7m tonnes/year of urea and merchant ammonia and will use the green hydrogen to produce green ammonia.

Green ammonia is made from renewable energies like solar and wind power instead of natural gas, with the versatile product a cost-effective carrier of hydrogen.