TotalEnergies has announced it will co-develop a green hydrogen-to-sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) demonstration project in the planned Masdar City development with UAE-based clean energy firm Masdar and Germany’s Siemens Energy.

Masdar originally unveiled the project in 2021 in partnership with Siemens, Abu Dhabi’s Department of Energy, airlines Etihad Airways and Lufthansa, Japan’s Marubeni and Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

“The demonstrator plant will help to establish the commercial viability of green hydrogen as an essential decarbonised fuel of the future, and will support Abu Dhabi’s development as a green hydrogen hub,” says Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel al-Ramahi.

The UAE aims to hold a 25pc share of the global clean hydrogen export market as part of its strategy to reach net zero by 2050.

“While the hydrogen market is still at a comparatively early stage, we firmly believe that, by working together with international partners on projects such as this, we can help the hydrogen market develop its full potential and it will really take off in the years to come,” says Ramahi.

“The demonstrator plant will help to establish the commercial viability of green hydrogen as an essential decarbonised fuel of the future” Ramahi, Masdar

The initiative has completed its evaluations for technology suppliers, feasibility studies and conceptual designs, and plans to commence Feed later this year.

Although this will be TotalEnergies’ first SAF project using hydrogen as a feedstock, the company aims to leverage its broader expertise in SAF manufacturing and marketing to advance the project. The oil major first trialled SAF in commercial flights in 2014 and plans to build a renewable diesel unit processing waste biomass at its Grandpuits refinery in France, which could supply 170,000t/yr of SAF by 2024.

“[The green hydrogen demonstrator project] is in-line with our strategy of building a multi-energy company with the ambition to get to net zero by 2050 together with society,” says Francois Good, senior vice-president for refining and petrochemicals for TotalEnergies.

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Author: Polly Martin