An international consortium announced its intention to build the world’s biggest hydrogen facility with a 100-MW electrolyser, five times more powerful than what is now the world’s biggest hydrogen facility in the Canadian province of Quebec. The new project may come on stream next year.

    Making up the consortium are Norwegian renewables producer SCATEC, fertiliser company Fertiglobe from Abu Dhabi, the Sovereign Fund of Egypt and Cairo-based Orascum Construction.  

    U.S. company Plug Power will supply the 100-MW Polymer Electrolyte Membrane electrolyser for the project, which is to produce up to 90,000 tonnes of green ammonia a year. The facility is to be located at the Egypt Basic Industries ammonia plant at Ain Sokhna on the Gulf of Suez.

    “Construction is expected to follow an accelerated schedule to showcase the green hydrogen facility during Cop27 in Egypt in November 2022,” said OCI Executive Chairman Nassef Sawiris. OCI holds a 58% share of Fertiglobe.

    The consortium described Egypt as “an ideal location to produce green hydrogen, given its unique renewables profile with strong solar and wind loads, and proximity to markets with a hydrogen deficit”.

    The world’s largest project for production of environmentally clean hydrogen is an Air Liquide plant with a capacity of 20 MW in Quebec, using locally produced hydropower.

    Various companies have announced plans to develop hydrogen plans with a capacity greater than 250 MW and some exceeding 1 GW. But construction of these planned facilities will be completed no earlier than the middle of the decade.