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A joint venture of Masdar, the UAE-based renewable energy company, and Hassan Allam Utilities, the investment and development arm of Egypt's Hassan Allam Holding Group, will set up green hydrogen production plants in Egypt in Sokhna in the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) and on the Mediterranean coast.
The two companies have signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) with The General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone), New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE) for the projects, Masdar said in a press statement.
The partnership will set up a green e-methanol plant by 2026 as part of the first phase with a capacity of 100,000 tonnes per annum for the bunkering market in the Suez Canal, the statement said.
E-methanol, which is produced by combining green hydrogen and captured carbon dioxide, is considered one of the candidates for alternate fuel to meet IMO2030/2050 goals.
According to the press statement, the partnership has set a target of building 4 gigawatts (GW) of total electrolyser capacity by 2030 with an annual output of up to 480,000 tonnes of green hydrogen and 2.3 million tonnes of green ammonia for export and domestic consumption.
The statement quoted SCZone's Chairman Yehia Zaki saying that the MoU with Masdar and Hassan Allam Utilities is the fifth such pact for green fuel production projects inside the Sokhna zone.
"All the companies now are conducting feasibility studies for the projects in detail to sign and announce the actual contracts in coinciding with the COP27 climate summit next November," he said.
Last week, a consortium of EDF Renewables and Zero Waste signed an MoU with SCZone, TSFE, NREA, and EETC to establish a green ammonia bunkering project in Egypt at a total investment of $3 billion.
The same week, UAE's AMEA Power signed an MoU with the aforementioned government entities to set up a project to produce up to 390,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year in Ain Sokhna.
In January 2022, US-based H2-Industries announced that it received preliminary approval from SCZone to develop a waste-to-hydrogen plant at East Port Said.
In March, Norway's Scatec announced that it signed an MOU with SCZone, TSFE, NREA, and EETC to develop a green ammonia facility in Egypt.
The Masdar statement noted that Egypt's Ministry of Electricity is currently revising its 2030 renewable energy strategy to include green hydrogen and is developing a green hydrogen strategy, which is expected to be issued by October 2022.
(Writing by Eman Hamed; Editing by Anoop Menon)
