Egypt Green, a joint venture of Fertiglobe (an OCI-ADNOC joint venture), Scatec, Orascom Construction and The Sovereign Fund of Egypt, announced on Tuesday the start of commissioning of the first phase of the green hydrogen plant in Ain Sokhna.

Scatec said in a statement that the consortium is “currently testing the first and largest polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolyser in Africa for the first phase of the project.”

In November 2021, Zawya Projects had reported that the consortium selected US-based Plug Power as the electrolyser provider for the project.

“The hydrogen tie-ins for up to 100 MW of electrolysis have already been installed at Fertiglobe’s two existing ammonia plants in Ain Sokhna,” the statement said.

The consortium is in the process of finalising engineering and technology choices for the full-scale plant and aim to reach Final Investment Decision (FID) on the facility in 2023, it added.

Scatec is majority owner of Egypt Green and will build and operate the facility.

As the first integrated green hydrogen plant in Africa, Egypt Green will eventually consist of 100 megawatts (MW) of electrolysers, powered by 260 MW of solar and wind, the statement said.

It said the project would deliver up to approximately 15,000 tonnes of green hydrogen as feedstock for production of up to 90,000 tonnes of green ammonia per year in Fertiglobe’s ammonia plants [owned by its subsidiary Egyptian Basic Industries Company (EBIC) under an offtake agreement].

In March 2022, Scatec had announced that it will develop a large-scale green ammonia facility in SCZONE’s Ain Sokhna Industrial Zone with an annual production capacity of one million tonnes.

In May 2022, Zawya Projects had reported that Egypt expects to finalise green hydrogen projects worth $10 billion in the fourth quarter.

(Writing by SA Kader; Editing by Anoop Menon)

(anoop.menon@lseg.com)