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drive. Gazprom wants to develop so-called interest in the region. “Latin America has pilot
turquoise hydrogen, generated from gas but projects in Costa Rica and Argentina [and] pro-
using pyrolysis, where gas is passed through jects in an advanced state of development in
molten metal, producing solid carbon as a use- Chile and Uruguay, as well as great interest from
ful by-product. energy and hydrocarbon companies in Colom-
This will require significant research and bia,” she told Latin America Advisor.
development by the company, as so far pyrolysis Some of these pilot projects are being
is only used on a very small scale. Rosatom wants carried out by the Costa Rican Hydrogen
to generate hydrogen from water using electroly- Alliance, a group of private- and public-sec-
sis, but powering the process with nuclear rather tor companies representing every link in the
than renewable energy. This is known as yellow green hydrogen value chain. Jose Antonio
hydrogen. Castro Nieto, chief scientist at Costa Rica’s
It is envisaged that the pair could start pro- Ad Astra Rocket, said that the alliance saw the
duction at pilot projects in 2024, according to a light- to heavy-duty transportation sector as a
draft of the ministry’s strategy. good candidate for hydrogen-based decarbon-
Europe’s end-goal is green hydrogen, how- isation initiatives.
ever, with the EU viewing other types of non-re- “Compared to batteries, hydrogen is better
newable hydrogen as only transition fuels. Russia suited for the light- to heavy-duty transportation
therefore has only a limited window for estab- sector, due to its much better energy-to-weight
lishing hydrogen exports but it be could locked ratio. In this sector, weight and volume are at a
out of the market eventually. premium,” he told Latin America Advisor.

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Latin American potential Saudi’s maiden blue ammonia shipment
The IEA identified Chile as a potential future The world’s largest oil producer is pushing
source of low-cost green hydrogen in its recent hard to take a leadership position in the nas-
Energy Technology Perspectives 2020 report, cent hydrogen sector. This week it shipped a
and officials in Santiago appear to be keen on consignment of 40 tonnes of blue ammonia
this possibility. generated from hydrocarbons to Japan under
In late August, Chilean Energy Minister a collaborative study between Saudi Aramco,
Juan Carlos Jobet told the Financial Times SABIC and the Institute of Energy Economics
that his country might be in a position to Japan (IEEJ).
export $30bn worth of green hydrogen by While the cargo is small, it is an important
2050, thanks to its decision to invest heavily in first step in proving the premise and will facil-
solar power generation capacity. This is equiv- itate zero-carbon power generation for Japan,
alent to Chile’s current earnings from copper where it will be used in gas turbines and a
exports, Jobet noted. co-firing boiler. Meanwhile, Aramco and
But Chile is not the only Latin American SABIC have taken the CO2 generated for use
state eyeing hydrogen projects. Ana Angel, in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and methanol
Latin America manager at the Hinicio consul- production respectively.
tancy, noted earlier this year that there was wide For Saudi Arabia, the move illustrates the

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