By Tom Young
The Misr facility will eventually produce green ammonia for export
Egypt has officially started trial operations at Africa’s first green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna. The Misr facility will eventually produce 15,000t/yr of green hydrogen from an electrolyser powered by 260MW of solar and wind assets. The green hydrogen will be used as a raw material to produce up to 90,000t/yr of green ammonia at plants owned by fertiliser firm and lead developer Fertiglobe.
The project partners—which also include green energy firm Scatec, construction firm Orascom and Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund—are testing the electrolyser ahead of an expected FID in 2023. The 100MW proton-exchange-membrane electrolyser has already been partially installed.
Ain Sokhna is located near the Suez Canal, making it well-placed for exports.
“We are taking full advantage of our existing ammonia production and global distribution infrastructure” Hoshi, Fertiglobe
“The development of Africa’s first integrated green hydrogen production plant in record time reflects what can be achieved by joining forces to achieve shared ambitions,” says Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, chair of Fertiglobe.
“We are confident that Fertiglobe will continue to leverage its expertise in hydrogen and ammonia to provide additional quantities of low-carbon fuels.”
Fertiglobe will take advantage of its existing infrastructure and customer base to market the ammonia generated by the plant.
“Thanks to the addition of an electrolyser to our state-of-the-art facilities and ammonia production infrastructure in Egypt, we are taking full advantage of our existing ammonia production and global distribution infrastructure, including [fertiliser supplier] OCI’s ammonia import pier in the port of Rotterdam,” says Ahmed al-Hoshi, CEO of Fertiglobe.
The firm has already started selling low-carbon ammonia cargoes to Japanese buyers.
Fertiglobe is a partnership between OCI and the Emirati state oil company Adnoc. The firm is also expected to join Adnoc and holding company ADQ as a partner in a new 1mn t/yr blue ammonia project at Ta’ziz in Ruwais.
