State-owned Adnoc signed a deal in early June to explore the potential domestic manufacture of electrolysers for the nascent local and international green hydrogen industries, three weeks after agreeing with US energy services firm Baker Hughes to perform local testing of various technologies under development for producing low-carbon variants of the fuel.

Two months earlier, it launched a pilot project in the eastern emirate of Fujairah trialling an embryonic method of CCS.

The two events are symptomatic of the aspirations of the Emirati giant and its government owner not only to decarbonise its own assets but also to make the UAE an international hub for clean energy development—an ambition expected to be prominently showcased when the Cop28 climate summit comes to the federation in five months’ time.

Unsurprisingly, in common with hydrocarbon players worldwide, Adnoc is pinning high hopes on CCS as a means to lower the carbon intensity of existing operations and to enable diversification into blue hydrogen.

Adnoc is pinning high hopes on CCS as a means to lower the carbon intensity of existing operations and to enable diversification into blue hydrogen

Blue was the initial focus of the company’s hydrogen plans as they emerged gradually from early 2021, covered both by its upstream focus on vastly expanding gas production and with its expertise in CCS gained through the 800,000t/yr Al Reyadah sequestration facility, commissioned in 2016.

Adnoc was prescient in recognising the importance of securing early-mover advantage in building relationships with potential customers—extending deep, longstanding energy ties with Japan and South Korea into collaboration on developing supply chains for blue hydrogen and its derivatives. Back in November 2021, it signed-up Tokyo-based Mitsui and Seoul-headquartered GS Energy to invest in a 1mn t/yr blue ammonia project in western Abu Dhabi, although FID remains pending.

May’s agreement with Baker Hughes likewise shows the Emirati firm leveraging existing corporate ties to support its clean energy ambitions. The US firm is a shareholder in its core Adnoc Drilling subsidiary and a partner, via a ‘strategic technology collaboration agreement’, in low-carbon energy announced in November.

The latest deal includes testing of a new methane plasma technology developed by the UK’s Levidian to capture carbon from Adnoc’s gas facilities in the form of graphene for potential industrial use. The firm recently launched the tendering process for the construction of a long-planned CCS plant at its giant Habshan gas-processing hub in western Abu Dhabi, one of two projects intended to raise total sequestration capacity to 5mn t/yr by 2030.

Meanwhile, work started in March on a pilot project being executed jointly with sister company Masdar, fellow Emirati firm Fujairah Natural Resources and British/Omani technology startup 44.01 to ‘mineralise’ CO₂—capturing the gas, dissolving it in seawater and then injecting it into peridotite formations found in the Hajar Mountains, which stretch north from Oman into the eastern emirate. The Fujairah pilot will harness atmospheric CO₂, but 44.01 has also trialled the use of its technology in Oman for the production of blue ammonia.

Going green

Nonetheless, with consensus having developed that falling input prices and carbon border adjustment mechanisms will make renewables-based hydrogen more competitive by the next decade, Adnoc has increasingly shifted focus towards green hydrogen.

In December, it acquired the largest single shareholding in Masdar’s green hydrogen business. Masdar has a stated aim to produce 1mn t/yr of green hydrogen by 2030. National energy company Taqa, its other main stakeholder, announced plans for a 2GW facility in the emirate’s Kizad industrial zone in July 2021.

The same ambition to become not merely a producer but a technology leader in the nascent sector is again evident in the Baker Hughes pact, which encompasses trialling ‘next generation’ electrolyser technology developed by Italy-based Nemesys at the Adnoc Research and Innovation Centre.

The twin drives by Adnoc and the federal government to localise supply chains are being extended to the clean energy sector—a move also consistent with growing international concern about geographic overconcentration of the materials and expertise essential to the energy transition. On 1 June, the company announced a ‘strategic collaboration’ with Belgium’s John Cockerill Hydrogen and the local Strata Manufacturing aimed at developing a local electrolyser-manufacturing capacity for both domestic use and export.

The third project enshrined in the Baker Hughes deal will trial the production of so-called turquoise hydrogen using a methane pyrolysis technology developed by Canada’s Ekona Power. The method of production has yet to be commercialised anywhere in the world but if it is to play a role in the coming hydrogen economy, Abu Dhabi wants to be ready to capitalise.

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Author: Clare Dunkley