Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s NEOM will produce its first green hydrogen this year. The project is slated to become the world’s largest green hydrogen production facility.
Mega-city NEOM targets to produce 600 tonnes of the fuel per day by the end of 2026.
Wesam Alghamdi, CEO of Neom Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC), said in a conference in Dubai last week that the Hydrogen Innovation Development Centre (HIDC) will produce eight tonnes of green hydrogen a day on launch this year.
HIDC is set to house a single 20-megawatt hydrogen electrolyzer unit, operating as a dedicated research and development facility. The centre is being established in collaboration with Enowa, a subsidiary of Neom focusing on water and electricity.
Hydrogen is produced in a process called electrolysis, which is. splitting water into oxygen and hydrogen using an electric current.
Industry experts say electrolysis constitutes at least half of hydrogen production cost.
NEOM has reached a financial close of USD8.4 billion (Dh30.8 billion), USD6.1 billion (Dh22.4 billion) of which are from 23 local, regional and international banks and financial institutions.
Alghamdi said that the green hydrogen produced will be converted to 1.2 million tonnes of ammonia annually. NGHC has signed a 30-year off-take agreement with air products for all the green ammonia produced at the facility.
Wind and solar will supply the project with four gigawatts (GW) of electricity. The project will save five million tonnes of carbon.
