26-03-2022

Uniper, Hydrogenious of Germany and JERA Americas to Partner with ADNOC to Explore Hydrogen Opportunities

Uniper, Hydrogenious LOHC of Germany and JERA Americas together with the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced today a joint study agreement (JSA) to explore hydrogen transportation between the UAE and Germany using Hydrogenious’ Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) technology. Under the agreement, which was announced during the visit to the UAE of Robert Habeck, German Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the parties will explore the opportunity to scale up existing LOHC technology to help meet growing global demand for the transportation of hydrogen.

Hydrogen is recognized as an important clean energy source, with the potential to provide a significant portion of the world’s growing energy needs. However, it is a very light element, which makes it difficult to transport over large distances. Hydrogenious’ LOHC technology provides a safe, low cost means of bulk hydrogen storage and transportation, bonding hydrogen molecules to a non-flammable liquid, making it suitable and safer for transportation and distribution.

Hydrogenious' LOHC technology is based on the proprietary carrier material benzyl toluene (BT) When stored within the BT, no hydrogen losses occur, allowing long storage durations and storage of large volumes. It offers easy handling characteristics under ambient pressure and temperatures, even in cold conditions, allowing for its handling within the existing fuel logistics infrastructure. Its energy density is highly favorable as a transportation vessel can store approximately five times more energy compared to compressed hydrogen. BT is widely used in industry and thus commercially available in large quantities. Moreover, it can be loaded and unloaded with hydrogen many hundreds of times and is recyclable. For large-scale harbour-to harbour supply chains, LOHC has potential as an alternative to ammonia or liquid hydrogen.

The UAE’s competitive hydrogen production is enabled by its abundant and low-cost access to both renewable energy and hydrocarbons and its existing large-scale hydrogen production infrastructure. ADNOC plans to leverage its hydrogen production, infrastructure and partnership base to lead Abu Dhabi and the UAE’s hydrogen activities, with the aim to become one of the world’s leading producers of hydrogen and its carrier fuels.