Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s clean energy firm, is working on a hydrogen demonstrator project with two other state-backed organizations as part of a consortium. At the end of the year, the project’s design will be completed.

The company has already started evaluating its green hydrogen demonstrator project, which will see fuel cells used in buses at Masdar City’s carbon-neutral Masdar City, as well as in aviation fuel for Etihad and Lufthansa.

Masdar, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and holding company ADQ formed a hydrogen partnership earlier this year to produce green and blue hydrogen variants.

Green hydrogen is a gas that is generated using renewable energy sources like wind and solar and is used to power electrolysers that break water molecules. Steam methane reforming is used to produce blue hydrogen, which is provided by Adnoc.

The project’s second step will look at expanding the fuel’s use in the marine and shipping industries.

Hydrogen has become a common alternative fuel that Gulf oil-exporting countries like the UAE and Saudi Arabia are prioritizing for production.

Germany’s Siemens Energy, Japan’s Marubeni, Etihad Airways, the Lufthansa Group, the UAE’s Khalifa University of Science and Technology, and the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy are among Masdar’s backers.

Siemens Energy and Marubeni are developing the green hydrogen project’s key infrastructure. At Dubai’s Expo 2020, which was postponed until this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the German company is also designing one of the first solar-powered electrolyser projects to generate hydrogen for fuel cells.

Masdar will test the production of hydrogen using solar photovoltaic power and will look into the possibility of exporting the fuel in the future to meet growing global demand, especially in Europe.