With the release of a public tender for the development of a facility in the harbor of Suape (northeast), Brazil took another significant step on Friday in its commitment to the production of green hydrogen.
The winning business will have 1 gigawatt of installed capacity on a plot measuring 72.5 hectares placed in the Suape Port Industrial Complex, in the metropolitan region of Recife, the regional capital, for 25 years with the option of renewal for the same duration.
The project will have a second unit to manufacture the so-called “blue hydrogen,” arising from methane vapor as input for ammonia, and the green hydrogen will be produced from the process of removing salt from saltwater.
A “hub” (exchanger) for the production, transportation, storage, and administration of green hydrogen is also being run in Suape, under the direction of the Chinese company CTG, with the assistance of Senai and the Pernambuco government.
Although it may also be used as fuel and a raw material for industry, green or renewable hydrogen (H2V) is produced through the “water electrolysis” method, which involves the separation of oxygen and hydrogen. It is mostly used to produce fertilizers for agricultural activities.
On the other hand, a delegation from the government of Ceará (northeast), led by governor Izolda Cela, also visited the facility on Friday. It is the first green hydrogen plant being built in Latin America, and it will start operating in December in the seaport of Pecem, which is part of the Fortaleza metropolitan area.
The facility will have a first-phase production capacity of 178 tons of green hydrogen per year with initial expenditures of 42 million reais (about 8.4 million USD).
Twenty definite projects for the installation in the port of businesses from Brazil, France, Portugal, Spain, Australia, the United States, and Italy that is interested in creating green hydrogen from renewable sources have already been signed by Pecem, situated in Sao Gonçalo de Amarante. such as solar and wind energy.
Additional green hydrogen projects are being developed in Brazil, including the largest plant in the world when it begins operating at the end of 2023, a unit of the multinational Unigel in the Petrochemical Complex of Camaçar, in Bahia, also in the Northeast area.