Under the African Sun: Hydrogen from Namibia for Europe?

Hydrogen Imports Under the African Sun: Hydrogen from Namibia for Europe?

2023-02-07 From Dominik Stephan 5 min Reading Time

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Where will the gas for tomorrow come from? Not from Central Europe - at least not on its own - everyone actually agrees on that. Even and especially in the brave new world of green energies, the Old World will be dependent on imports, perhaps even more than before. For this reason, wind- and above all sun-rich and sparsely populated countries are getting into position to supply Europe with much sought-after hydrogen. Namibia could play a key role in this...

Desert sun for hydrogen: Germany hopes for H2 from Namibia.(Source: free licensed / Pixabay) — Desert sun for hydrogen: Germany hopes for H2 from Namibia.
(Source: free licensed / Pixabay)

Whether it's energy storage for homes and businesses, green fuels or basic chemicals made from waste gas, hardly any defossilization vision can do without the lightest element in the periodic table. Hydrogen could solve almost all our defossilization problems - if we had it. But where is so much gas to come from for all the big plans? Simply extracting the coveted substance from natural gas, as has been done in the past, is out of the question in view of the CO₂ balance - at least if we're talking about "green" hydrogen. And no one really thinks it's realistic to produce enough electrolysis gas from green electricity in Germany - the demand for "green" energy in all other sectors is too great.

There is no way around importing considerable amounts of energy, raw materials and energy carriers in the future. Just as a perspective: In 2020, the German chemical industry predicted a demand for over 600 terawatt hours of green energy per year - more than the whole country of Germany currently generates in total electricity across all sources. And that's just for a single industrial sector.

Expected to produce up to 1 GW of blue hydrogen on completion, the H2Teesside project site will also capture and store up to two million tonnes of CO2 annually. (Source: BP)

So we need to bring energy to Western and Central Europe - but how? In the form of hydrogen. The vision of producing the gas in sunny countries with plenty of space and windy coasts by electrolysis using green electricity and transporting it by pipeline or ship to customers abroad is not new. Alongside Australia, a new partner is coming to the fore: Namibia. According to experts, the African country is predestined for the production of renewable energies. With around 3,500 hours of sunshine per year, it has three times the amount possible at locations in Mid-Europe locations. And the wind in the coastal region is strong and steady. In addition, there is a vast, sparsely populated area, characterized by the Namib and Kalahari deserts.

Hydrogen from Africa for the Old World?

From 2025, the Namibian government plans to produce green hydrogen and sell it all over the world - including to customers in Germany. Germany, which is not blessed with the sun, space and wind of the African Atlantic coast, urgently needs green gas. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research has also approached the Namibian government and, as Namibia's (incidentally first) government partner, has concluded a government cooperation agreement on green hydrogen.

The distribution is clear: Germany will provide money for the development of a national hydrogen strategy and capacity building for the education and training of local specialists in Namibia as well as scholarships for students from Namibia, German technology companies will (hopefully) provide the necessary know-how and equipment, and Namibia will finally provide the coveted green gas. The ministry has already earmarked 40 million euros for this purpose.

300, 000 tons of H₂ from solar power

Four specific projects (out of 26 originally submitted) are to be pursued and corresponding funding applications submitted, including two in the port of Walvis Bay (hydrogen-powered heavy-duty vehicles and a mobile hydrogen refueling solution). In addition, there will be H₂ dual-fuel technology for locomotives and use cases for hydrogen applications in solar and wind energy as well as desalination and electrolysis projects.

Among them, the Hyphen Hydrogen Energy joint venture of an Enertrag subsidiary from South Africa and the Nicolas holding company is planning to produce 300, 000 metric tons of electrolysis hydrogen annually. Budgeted for this is around ten billion dollars - a lot of money in a country whose GDP is around 12 billion. Investors are therefore being sought worldwide, with the government also considering targeted hydrogen bonds. Incidentally, Namibia is also hoping for revenues from the potential green gold: Hydrogen could contribute up to six billion U.S. dollars (or about one third) to the gross domestic product, the government hopes.

How Does the Gas Get to Europe?

The gas would most likely arrive in Europe by ship - but even that is not so easy: Hydrogen can be liquefied in cryogenic form (at - 253 ° C ) and shipped around the world by gas tanker, but this would require considerable amounts of energy. In the future, H₂ tankers could be unloaded in converted gas terminals on the North Sea, such as Zeebrugge (from where there is a pipeline to Aachen) or Rotterdam, which is slowly becoming a hydrogen hub and is building up its own electrolysis capacities on a ton scale.

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Hydrogen Projects of 2022

Shell to Start Building Europe’s Largest Renewable Hydrogen Plant: Shell Nederland and Shell Overseas Investments, subsidiaries of Shell, have taken the final investment decision to build Holland Hydrogen I, which will be Europe’s largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational in 2025.(Source: Shell)

One of the Largest Green H2 Production Plants to be Developed in Europe: HH2E and Met Group have established a joint project company for building one of the largest production plants for green hydrogen in Germany. On completion, the project is expected to produce more than 60,000 tons of green hydrogen annually.(Source: Shawn Hempel - stock.adobe.com)

ExxonMobil to Build One of the World’s Largest CCS Projects in USA: With an aim to reduce industry emissions, ExxonMobil has plans to develop a hydrogen production plant along with one of the world’s largest CCS projects at its Baytown site in Texas, USA.(Source: photogrfx - stock.adobe.com)

Vertex Hydrogen to Build UK’s First Large-Scale Low Carbon Hydrogen Plant: In a recent report by Vertex Hydrogen, the company has provided the details of developing the low carbon hydrogen production project in the UK. Under the project, natural gas, refinery fuel gas will be converted into low carbon hydrogen and carbon dioxide will be captured and permanently stored under the sea bed.(Source: magann - stock.adobe.com)

Gallery with 9 images

An alternative would be the production of "green" ammonia, which can be transported as a liquid medium at only about 10 bar. NH₃, once in Europe, could be burned or split back into hydrogen and nitrogen. Of course, hundreds of millions of ammonia are also needed in fertilizer production. In addition to being easy to handle, ammon has the great advantage of not requiring fossil raw materials or carbon sources (only atmospheric nitrogen), and thus can be produced even in a post-fossil world, without readily available carbon-containing waste gases. RWE therefore also plans to have a dedicated ammonia transfer terminal up and running in Brunsbüttel, Germany by 2026.

Will Namibia Solve Europe's Hydrogen Problem?

So is hope for Europe's defossilization growing under the African sun? Or are H₂ dreams just dreams after all? The chemical institute Dechema and the Institute for Social-Ecological Research ISOE have investigated this question. And they poured some water into the wine of the H₂ prophets. Namibia, they say, is better suited than almost any other country to generate wind and solar energy. But hydrogen production also requires - as the name suggests - water.

At a glance: Plant engineering projects from across the globe. (Source: currahee_shutter - stock.adobe.com)

"Even though many experts believe that Namibia is one of the most promising countries for the low-cost production of green hydrogen, it is also the driest country in the sub-Saharan region. Sufficient renewable energy alone is not enough for hydrogen production. Water, which is also needed, must therefore be obtained locally at low cost from seawater desalination plants. Only then will the project be profitable," says Dr. Daniel Frank, coordinator of the project at Dechema. And of course, this use of water and land will not be without conflict with other interested parties - this is something we have to be prepared for and take into account social and ecological risks.

The potential is certainly there, according to the researchers. Not least because successful cooperation across countries and continents would serve as a model for other projects - and the gas has to come from somewhere. In just ten years, Germany alone could need the equivalent of 50 TWh of "green" gas, and by 2050 the figure is set to reach a staggering 500 TWh - by way of comparison, the country currently imports around 83 million tons of crude oil per year.

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