Interest is starting to build around a major green hydrogen and ammonia export project in Dakhla, Morocco.
Dahamco President Tom Hanson said phase 1 would produce nearly one million tonnes per year from 2031 and cost around $4.04bn. Further phases would be commissioned at intervals of four-to-five years, potentially creating a project worth $25bn.
Moroccan media has reported the project will launch ‘soon’, without giving dates or confirmation.
The hydrogen and ammonia production will be exclusively for export, especially to the Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp region, for use in industry and maritime transport.
Partners in the project include TAQA Morocco – the Moroccan subsidiary of the UAE group TAQA -, AP Moller Capital (Denmark), and Moroccan companies Dahamco, Ornx Boujdour and OCP Group (phosphate producer).
Momentum is clearly building in Morocco’s green hydrogen sector.
Last week KGAL Investment Management and KfW announced they will back a Moroccan green hydrogen-based ammonia project with a non-refundable €30m ($31.3m) grant after it was selected by the PtX Development Fund.
The two companies reviewed a total of 98 expressions of interests from seven countries before signing a grant agreement with INNOVX’s Hydrojeel for its Jorf Hydrogen Platform project.
Read more: PtX Investment Fund backs 100,000 tonne green ammonia project in Morocco
Plans to inject green hydrogen into heavy-duty gas turbines at a Moroccan power plant are being studied under a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
GE Vernova, the Moroccan National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (ONEE), and power generation company Nareva, agreed to collaborate on a feasibility study to develop solutions to decarbonise ONEE’s Laâyoune Power Plant.
Read more: Green hydrogen injection at Moroccan power plant to be studied
Morocco, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are expected to exceed their hydrogen production capacities for 2030, according to the International Energy Agency.
The North African’s hydrogen strategy is built on three pillars.
For the near term (2020-2030), hydrogen will be used as a feedstock in the local production of green ammonia and export of green hydrogen to countries with ambitious decarbonisation goals.
Thereafter from 2030-2040, with the reduction in the cost of producing hydrogen and hydrogen-based fuels, and with stricter environmental regulations, the production and export of green hydrogen, green ammonia, synthetic fuels is envisioned. At the same time, hydrogen will be used as an electricity storage vector and as fuel in the transport sector.
In the long term (2040-2050), the strategy sees an expansion of the hydrogen trade at a global level, as well as its use in industry, residential heating and transport in the country.
