South Africa continues to take strides in developing its hydrogen ecosystem and has received a boost with Hive Hydrogen and Linde Africa revealing a $4.6bn green ammonia plant.
With this development, it is expected to enrich the hydrogen economy by providing a new avenue for hydrogen to be utilised and provide a new lucrative financial aspect to its production.
The new ammonia production plant is expected to be developed in the Nelson Mandela Bay and will use hydrogen to produce around 780,000 tonnes per annum of ammonia which will then be used both for domestic purposes and to be exported to international markets.
This could be a significant development for the international hydrogen supply chain with ammonia identified as a key zero-emission fuel that could decarbonise various sectors through its unique properties.
With this rising demand for the clean fuel, hydrogen production demand will also increase meaning that more of the clean energy carrier will need to be available to keep up with the demand for green ammonia.
South Africa, through this project, could be set to be one of the key nations in its production.
Giles Redpath, CEO of Hive Energy, said, “Hive Energy UK have been working on renewable energy powered Green Hydrogen and Green Ammonia projects since 2019 and are very pleased that we, together with Built Africa and Afrox, have reached this critical milestone in our completion of the pre-feasibility studies for this project.
“The renewable energy and energy storage component alone will be the biggest project of its kind in Sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest globally.”
