UAE, Germany sign ‘blue hydrogen’ contract in Abu Dhabi
German vice-chancellor Robert Habeck has secured several hydrogen cooperation contracts with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), with the first blue hydrogen expected to be shipped to Germany in 2022.
The rainbow of hydrogen nomenclature can be confusing. While green hydrogen is created using renewable electricity, blue hydrogen is made from natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) to bury the emissions underground.
The climate merits of blue hydrogen are often questioned though, because it relies on fossil gas as the primary feedstock whereas green hydrogen is made from water electrolysis.
“The accelerated expansion of hydrogen supply chains is a very pivotal factor in the transition to sustainable energy,” explained Germany’s Habeck following his visit to Abu Dhabi.
The vice-chancellor welcomed the planned cooperation between German and Emirati companies and the planned research cooperation involving German research institute Fraunhofer and the UAE’s energy ministry.
Germany aims to import the lion’s share of the 3 million tonnes of “clean” hydrogen it aims to use by 2030. As a consequence, securing contracts with potential exporters like the UAE became a top priority, with the previous administration overseeing the launch of the Germany-UAE energy partnership in 2017.
The UAE has ideal sunny weather conditions for the cost-effective production of hydrogen from renewable energies and wants to “deliver the first hydrogen to Germany in 2022,” Habeck’s ministry said in a statement.
“Today’s cooperation thus make a twofold contribution: they strengthen the achievement of our climate goals and at the same time our energy security,” Habeck notes.
Whether blue hydrogen and ammonia helps any of these two objectives remains a subject of debate, however. Because blue hydrogen is made from fossil gas, an energy-hungry transformation phase is required to convert it into hydrogen. Just skipping this intermediary phase and shipping the gas directly to Germany would entail less energy losses. Likewise, blue hydrogen’s climate merits have been repeatedly questioned due to leakages of methane – a potent greenhouse gas – in the upstream gas supply chain.
The contracts
The statement issued by Habeck’s ministry doesn’t say whether the hydrogen that will be shipped to Germany from the UAE will be blue or green.
But looking at the contracts that were signed in Abu Dhabi, it appears all are related to blue hydrogen, at least in their initial phase. For one of them, Bavarian hydrogen transport startup Hydrogenious, the UAE’s state oil company (ADNOC), the Japanese joint venture JERA and the German utilities giant Uniper will try for a proof of concept of hydrogen transport.
To ship blue hydrogen to Germany, the companies involved will use so-called liquid organic hydrogen carrier technology, an oil-like substance that captures hydrogen and makes it transportable. Eventually, green hydrogen should also make its way to German shipping ports using this technique, once the UAE has enough electrolysers in place.
Another contract to ship hydrogen and its derivatives was signed by ADNOC, German utility RWE, coal power operator Steag, copper producer Aurubis and a company called GEWEC, which signed up to receive initial test shipments of blue ammonia.
ADNOC also signed with the logistics operator of the port of Hamburg to create a transport chain for blue ammonia, a gaseous compound of hydrogen and nitrogen (NH3), which is being considered as an alternative fuel in shipping.