By working together to build a sizable renewable hydrogen plant in Huelva using green energy and other renewable gases, Cepsa and Fertiberia have agreed to decarbonize their production processes.
Additionally, the businesses will make use of existing industrial synergies among their Huelva assets.
With this merger, Cepsa and Fertiberia, as stated by both businesses in a news release, become strategic partners in the plan to build a GW of electrolysis capacity in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva), as part of the Andalusian Valley of Green Hydrogen.
In Cepsa’s Energy Parks, this valley will be able to produce up to 300,000 tons and have a capacity of two GW, with one GW located in Campo de Gibraltar (Cádiz) and the other in Palos de la Frontera (Huelva).
By doing so, the agreement will maximize the facilities’ needs for hydrogen and biogenic CO2 within Palos de la Frontera’s industrial fabric (Huelva). Green hydrogen, whose production will start in 2026, will be used for Cepsa and Fertiberia’s industrial needs and will make it possible to produce sustainable fertilizers, ammonia, AdBlue, and advanced biofuels.
As a result, Fertiberia’s facilities in Palos de la Frontera and Cepsa’s La Rábida Energy Complex are situated close to one another. In order to “maximize the degree of efficiency in their administration,” this collaboration will also encourage the utilization of all existing industrial and operational synergies between the two complexes.
The cooperation will also enable Huelva to create a hydrogen and oxygen ring. Both businesses claim that building this infrastructure will be “a groundbreaking engineering project” that will “connect hydrogen producers with consumers, ensuring a more sustainable, more efficient, and competitive energy, allowing them to take advantage of synergies between all nearby industries and guaranteeing their security of supply.”
In order to “continue pushing the decarbonization of the Huelva industry and transform it into a benchmark in sustainability at the European level,” a “new strategic partner” is added to the Andalusian Green Hydrogen Valley, Cepsa CEO Maarten Wetselaar emphasized during the signing of this agreement.
He continued, “Our partnership with Fertiberia is a significant step in our commitment to green hydrogen as a critical energy vector to decarbonize our own activity and that of our customers.
Javier Goi, CEO of Grupo Fertiberia, has assured that the merger with Cepsa is “very relevant” on account of the fact that it “implies the collaboration between two companies with the longest industrial tradition in the province of Huelva, and that represent nearly all of the current hydrogen consumption of Andalusia.”
“This cooperation will support Huelva’s ability to produce green hydrogen competitively and provide chances for a variety of businesses involved in the value chain. Additionally, it will strengthen our position as industry leaders in green ammonia and sustainable fertilizers and the complete decarbonization of our assets.”
In this regard, the Government of Spain’s Hydrogen Roadmap sets the target for 2030 of having 25% of the hydrogen used in the industry come from renewable sources, both as raw materials and as sources of energy. Under this arrangement, Cepsa and Fertiberia will be able to use green hydrogen to decarbonize their consumption and collectively meet the goal established for the entire country of Spain by the end of this decade.
According to their agreement, both businesses will investigate the possibility of producing green methanol and ammonia, two sustainable fuels, in Huelva and other regions on the Iberian Peninsula.
Thus, this new partnership is a component of Cepsa’s 2030 strategy, Positive Motion, through which the firm is reshaping itself to become a benchmark in the energy transition, leading sustainable mobility in Spain and Portugal, and the generation of renewable hydrogen and advanced biofuels. By 2050, Cepsa hopes to have net zero emissions from both its own operations and those of its customers.
This alliance is “a new milestone” in Fertiberia’s strategy to “accelerate its growth process in the production of green ammonia,” according to the company, which will enable it to “lead this market in the next decade” in the European Union and make it “the first company in the world in its sector to manage to be carbon neutral in 2035.” In order to promote truly sustainable agriculture in Europe, Fertiberia already markets the Impact Zero product line, which makes it easier to decarbonize the production of food and beverages.
