Hopes for a green hydrogen manufacturing project between Morocco and Germany have been revived after the two nations re-established diplomatic ties.
Following a meeting between Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze on Thursday, the two ministers released a joint statement expressing their excitement.
Meeting “has affirmed the shared intention to further expand bilateral development cooperation in a spirit of comprehensive collaboration and mutual respect,” both officials said, emphasizing “the immense potential of development cooperation between Morocco and Germany in future fields.”
On March 1, 2021, Morocco unilaterally terminated diplomatic ties with Germany for “infringements on the Kingdom’s territorial integrity,” halting a promising green hydrogen generation project.
The first country to sign a collaborative green hydrogen development project will be Morocco in June 2020, after the German government’s presentation of its national hydrogen plan..
A key aspect of Germany’s energy neutrality aspirations is the use of hydrogen, and the plan called for Morocco and the German ministry of economic cooperation and development to work together on cooperative hydrogen research and investment.
Power-to-X, or P2X, is a phrase that refers to systems that convert the power generated from renewable sources into various forms of energy.
These methods may be able to reduce CO2 emissions. MASEN (Moroccan Solar Energy Agency) has suggested the first initiative, which focuses on the generation of green hydrogen, while IRESEN (Solar, Renewable Energies’ Research Institute) is involved in the second.
There will be a “green hydrogen production unit” in Morocco as a result of a relationship between Morocco and Germany, according to Gerd Müller, the former German Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, as stated by Deutsche Welle.
After this agreement, Morocco launched a National Hydrogen Commission in early July, which stated that “it will cut CO2 generation by 100,000 tons yearly,” according to the Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Environment.
Hydrogen research will be overseen and monitored by the Ministry, as well as the execution of a renewable energy-based plan for the production of hydrogen and its derivatives.
In the midst of the worldwide energy and climate crisis, the restart and continuation of this project will be a crucial lever for Morocco’s energy and sustainability ambitions.
Finally, there’s some good news about scarcity.
Green hydrogen and P2X are being considered by several nations as potential sources of fuel for industry, power production, home heating, and transportation.
Hydrogen has been shown in British and German research efforts to be a clean energy alternative, and there are strong hints that it will eventually replace gas resources.
The industrial feedstock for fertilizer manufacture, a crucial sector for Morocco, would considerably benefit from the P2X green hydrogen generation. Morocco has the greatest phosphates deposits in the world.
We may reduce our dependence on “black hydrogen,” which is produced from fossil fuels, by 830 million tons of carbon dioxide per year through the use of P2X, “green hydrogen.”
The use of carbon capture technology by P2X might also help speed up the green transition in heavy sectors that are still dependent on fossil fuels.
The electrolysis of carbon dioxide captured in the atmosphere can provide synthetic gas, formic acid, methanol, and ethanol.
Using P2X hydrogen technology, Europe’s present gas crisis can be alleviated since Russia, Europe’s largest gas supplier has launched an aggressive military action in Ukraine.
The project will also help Morocco, since tensions with neighboring and gas-supplying Algeria grew this summer, leading to Algiers’ decision to halt its supply to the Kingdom.
Green hydrogen and other carbon-neutral synthetic fuels provide an excellent potential to replace gasoline as a transportation fuel or natural gas as a power generating fuel in Morocco, where the government is eager to limit the country’s energy dependence.
