David Edmondson, CEO of NEOM Green Hydrogen Company (NGHC), said, “Air Products is an investor in the joint venture, and also the offtaker – and that’s a huge benefit in bringing a multi-million-dollar investment into reality, as you now have a guaranteed offtaker for the next 30 years, and that’s what gives the investment community the confidence that this project will actually go ahead. A lot of the projects being announced right now are very aspirational but the offtaker has still got to be defined.”

Air Products will act as the EPC contractor and overall systems integrator, he added. “It’s not just a question of buying in power, putting it into an ammonia plant and seeing how much ammonia you can produce, you’re trying to work out the lowest cost of ammonia, so optimising how much wind, how much solar power you want, and translating that into the lowest cost of ammonia.”

Edmondson said construction is advancing at NEOM, which is targeting 600 tonnes of green hydrogen daily.

“It’s a huge piece of land – as we’re in the World Cup, it’s about the equivalent of 325 football fields – and a lot of space set aside for expansion. All the product initially is for export but we do now need to look at opportunities for hydrogen across greater Saudi Arabia and the region.”

He said many of the key challenges have been overcome by selecting partners in good time (18 months ago). “In many ways the traditional challenges with operating a mega project we have managed to eliminate. But the main projects with large projects is how to configure them.”

The $5bn project, announced in July 2020, aims to come on stream in 2025. Air Products will produce nitrogen by air separation as well as 1.2m tonnes of green ammonia using Haldor Topsoe technology. It is projected to save 3 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually.

Enowa is billed as the ‘engine room’ for sustainable energy, water and hydrogen at NEOM, with its emphasis on green hydrogen.

Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources today (December 14) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with OXAGON, home to advanced and clean industries in NEOM, to co-operate in the implementation of the Future Factories Program, which aims to build a strong technology ecosystem enabling a sustainable digital transformation of the manufacturing sector in the Kingdom.