World’s largest green hydrogen plant may soon appear in Saudi Arabia

A $5 billion dollar green hydrogen production facility to be sited in NEOM, Saudi Arabia. The NEOM project will use about 4 GW of renewable power from solar, wind, and storage to produce 650 tons of carbon-free hydrogen per day to power buses and trucks around the world. The project is equally owned by Air Products, ACWA Power, and NEOM.

The plant will include the ammonia technology of Haldor Topsoe. The planned green ammonia loop will be the world’s largest on a par with the Gulf Coast Ammonia facility to be built in Texas, US, which will also use Haldor Topsoe ammonia technology. On the plant, hydrogen will be converted into 3,500 tons per day – or 1.2 million tons per year – of green ammonia.

The conversion of hydrogen into ammonia is an innovative approach to facilitate safe and reliable transport and storage of the green fuel, using the existing, well-proven infrastructure. Air Products will be the exclusive off-taker of the green ammonia produced at the NEOM site and intends to transport it around the world to be converted back into carbon-free hydrogen at local hydrogen refueling stations. Air Products’ focus is to supply hydrogen fuel cell buses and trucks with carbon-free hydrogen by 2025. The distribution to end customers represents an additional investment of two billion dollars by Air Products.

When implemented, the project avoids all emissions from the equivalent of over 700,000 cars, including over three million tons per year of CO2.

“We are honored to be part of this innovative world-scale project to reduce carbon emissions. Topsoe is focused on improving energy efficiency in today’s technologies while developing the solutions of the future. This is a great step ahead,” says Amy Hebert, Deputy CEO and EVP, Chemicals, Haldor Topsoe.