Collaboration and Acceleration Kick-Off Abu Dhabi MENA Industrial Gases 2022 Conference

The opening morning of the MENA Industrial Gases Conference Abu Dhabi 2022 highlighted the importance of collaboration and acceleration.

In his opening keynote address, Hamid Sabzikari, Vice President and General Manager, Middle East, Egypt and Turkey, Air Products said, “We need to come together and scale up – the Middle East region holds tremendous opportunities to be realized.”

Despite the challenges of COVID, he said Air Products had been very active in recent years – drawing on more than 20 years of experience in the Middle East – focusing on the “higher purpose” and hydrogen economy needed to tackle climate change and develop a low-carbon environment. It is investing at least $15 billion through 2027 in a massive push to clean hydrogen.

“Hydrogen is the best solution to address emissions from industries that are hard to abate,” he said. “Industries where electrification is impractical or not feasible – such as trucks, ships, aircraft, buses and steel – then hydrogen is the best alternative.”

In the opening session of ‘The Hydrogen Economy – Developments in the Middle East’, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company’s David Edmondson outlined how it is building the world’s largest green hydrogen plant; AMEA Power project development manager Raymond Ewart presented ‘Green The Hydrogen Ecosystem: Water, Wind, Solar and Ammonia”; Tina Andersen, Head of Sales and Applications Engineering, Hystar, shares her insights on “Next Generation PEM Electrolyzers in the MENA Region”.

Ewart agrees with the importance of collaboration in reducing bottlenecks and barriers. “We need companies like Industrial Gases to partner with strong renewable energy companies – like Air Products and ACWA Power in NEOM. Offtake is still completely uncharted territory, many electrolysers haven’t been done at scale, and we There has to be vigilance. To increase production, we need economies of scale to keep prices down, and proper manufacturing to get there on time.”

Edmondson said construction of NEOM was advancing with the goal of producing 600 tonnes of green hydrogen per day.

“It’s a huge piece of land – because we’re at the World Cup, it’s about the size of 325 football fields – and there’s a lot of room set aside for expansion. All the production was initially for export, but we really need to now Saudi Arabia and the region look for opportunities in hydrogen.”

He said many of the key challenges had been overcome by selecting partners in time (18 months ago). “In many ways, we’ve managed to remove the traditional challenges of operating large-scale projects. But the main item of large-scale projects is how to configure them.”

Andersen highlighted the development of Hystar, creating zero-emissions value in the MENA region, the characteristics of its “thinner” patented PEM electrolyser, and high-efficiency solutions for wind and solar.

She sees the Middle East and North Africa as the “most competitive” region for green hydrogen because of its abundance of renewable energy, access to global shipping routes and pipelines, and extensive experience in oil and gas.

Hystar is building its first containerized large-scale system, which is due to go live in 2023, she said.