Major companies in Latin America are eyeing hydrogen’s potential as a key component in their countries’ clean energy transitions and as a source of export revenue, according to a panel at the Hydrogen Americas Summit 2021.  

Colombia-based Grupo Energia Bogota (GEB), a utility holding company with close to $10bn in investments across Central and South America, is seeking partners in hydrogen projects, GEB president Juan Ricardo Ortega told the panel. “We are looking to grow and we are looking [at] the future of hydrogen,” he said.

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He noted that developing domestic consumption in Colombia will not be as easy as in Chile, where the mining industry could prove to be a significant source of demand. Chile is the hydrogen leader in Latin America—its large H2Chile private partnership is promoting the clean fuel as part of the energy transition. Chile aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, with hydrogen a key component.

Renewables

Colombia has the wind and solar potential needed to produce green hydrogen. Capacity could be as high as 20-25GW, with much of it in the north of the country. Most of that power could be used to produce green hydrogen for export, suggested Ortega.

GEB expects to see export demand for hydrogen begin to develop in about 2030. “We are looking at the possibility [that] Colombia could be one of the countries to supply the world,” he continued.

Blue hydrogen is also a possibility in the north of Colombia, with its large reserves of natural gas. “We can see that as one of the likely future exports of Colombia,” said Ortega, noting a coal port in the region could be used for exporting hydrogen.

Alejandro Stipanicic, president of Uruguay's state oil company Ancap, told the panel his firm also sees hydrogen as crucial to its transition to a low-carbon and sustainable energy future, complementing the move into biofuels. “Hydrogen is the way we see Ancap in the future,” he said.

Ancap views offshore wind as having great potential for producing green hydrogen, and the oil company will—in the long-term—look for partners in that sector.

The company is working on bids for offshore wind development in three different blocks off Uruguay’s coast. Ancap also has several decades of experience in the production, purification, storage and use of hydrogen at le Teja, Uruguay's sole oil refinery.

A dilemma for such companies is what happens when oil refineries become uneconomical in the energy transition, Stipanicic said. “After the [oil] refineries are gone, we see Ancap as strong, as an agent or partner in the offshore production and export of green hydrogen,” he said.

He suggested the company’s storage capacity could also ultimately be used for hydrogen, whether at its refinery or at its La Tablada distribution plant.

Roadmap

The Uruguayan government is finishing a roadmap for the H2U hydrogen project, with a view to producing hydrogen for local consumption and exports to international markets such as in Europe and Asia, he noted. Private investment with government support is being sought for onshore and offshore hydrogen. The onshore production would use the existing grid and green power sources, and would entail new dedicated facilities. Offshore, the facilities would also be new.

Under the government plan, private investors are building a pilot green hydrogen project with the potential to produce 360kg/d of hydrogen. A charging station is being installed in Montevideo. Production at facilities will be ramped up to meet local demand in the second stage, to be followed by large-scale exports, he said.

Ad Astra Energy and Environmental Services, a subsidiary of US rocket propulsion company Ad Astra Rocket Company, is working on renewable energy and green hydrogen storage and use in Costa Rica.

25GW – Renewable potential in northern Colombia

CEO Franklin Chang Diaz noted his company has developed Central America’s first hydrogen transportation ecosystem project to power a fuel cell bus imported from the US using a system based on solar power. In 2018, the then-new president Carlos Alvarado Quesada and his cabinet travelled in the bus to the presidential inauguration.

Currently, Ad Astra is commercially expanding by building a second dispenser. The company will then move to full-scale regional implementation. It is exploring opportunities for projects in Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico.

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Author: Ros Davidson