Commodities trader Trafigura has set itself a new target to invest in green hydrogen projects with a total capacity of 3GW by the end of its 2030 financial year, according to its latest sustainability report.

The new target signals a significant ramp-up in investment in the near term by the Singapore-based company. Its main hydrogen project to date is a 1GW facility under development at Esbjerg in southwest Denmark together with H2 Energy, a Swiss-based firm in which Trafigura has invested more than $62mn.

“We continue to expand our investments in renewable technologies and in clean energy sectors such as green hydrogen and ammonia, with a target of investing in renewable hydrogen projects with a total production capacity of 3GW by the end of 2030,” says Jeremy Weir, Trafigura’s CEO.

Trafigura expects to “progress toward FID” on the $1bn Esbjerg project in 2023, Weir says. The project, which is scheduled to start up in 2026, will be powered by offshore wind and is designed to produce up to 90,000t/yr of hydrogen to supply trucks and other heavy transport vehicles.

“We continue to expand our investments in renewable technologies and in clean energy sectors such as green hydrogen and ammonia” Weir, Trafigura

H2 Energy has set up a joint venture with US energy company Phillips 66 to develop and operate a network of hydrogen refuelling retail sites in Germany, Austria and Denmark.

Trafigura also has a share in the Iverson Efuels green ammonia project, which will be based in the municipality of Sauda on the southwestern coast of Norway. The initial capacity of the plant will be 210,000t/yr, but the developers see potential to scale up capacity to three times that level in the future.

The company has also invested in German project developer Hy2gen and US-based hydrogen fuel supply and logistics company OneH2.

In addition, it has launched a joint project with US-based technology company Amogy to study the feasibility of large-scale cracking technology to convert ammonia back into hydrogen.

“We are supporting hydrogen technology and production companies by providing access to capital and leveraging our expertise and global network, with the aim of bringing their solutions to market at scale,” Trafigura says.

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Author: Stuart Penson