Page 9 - AfrElec Week 03 2022

AfrElec AMMONIA AfrElec

South Africa’s ZAR75bn

green ammonia project

takes off

SOUTH AFRICA SOUTH Africa’s green ammonia industry took a the entire green ammonia output has been con-
giant leap forward with the launch of a ZAR75bn cluded well ahead of the first phase going live in
($4.9bn) green ammonia export plant this week 2025 and full operation getting underway by the
in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape. The end of 2026.
project is the first of its kind in South Africa. The plan is for a combined 3,200 MW of
The partners behind the project, Hive Hydro- renewable sun and wind energy to electrolyse
gen, Built Africa and Afrox subsidiary Linde said 3.4 megalitres of seawater a day as part of a
in a statement during the launch that the project desalination and hydrogen extraction process.
has already generated a great deal of interest. Proton exchange membrane, or PEM, electro-
They believe the project presents a new area lysers, which generally make use of South Afri-
for South Africa in its commitments to greener ca’s platinum and iridium metals, will separate
solutions for industry. According to them, the the hydrogen from the oxygen. The project will
renewable energy and energy storage compo- be working closely with salt-making company
nent of the project alone will be the biggest of its Cerebos, which has a nearby desalination plant
kind in sub-Saharan Africa and one of the largest interested in producing green hydrogen.
globally. Nitrogen will be simultaneously extracted
The project will be powered by a 1,000-MW from the air utilising an air separation unit.
solar plant, located adjacent to the plant, cou- The hydrogen and nitrogen will be combined
pled with a 56-MW battery storage component through ammonia synthesis to produce green
on site, and a 1,400-MW wind farm, which will ammonia, which will then be cooled, liquefied
be built further away. The initiative had already and stored for export.
secured an in-principle offtake agreement from The export of 780 000 tonnes per year (tpy)
a global player, it stated, a clear indication of the of green ammonia is planned from the Coega
world’s ‘go green’ momentum. Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) in ships that will
The export plant is also expected to generate likely be driven by green ammonia themselves at
in the region of 10,000 direct and indirect jobs. that stage, given the fast pace of change.™
The arrangement for a bankable offtake of

Week 03 20•January•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P9