Brazil nitrogen and chemical producer Unigel, Sao Paulo, said on July 26 that it plans to invest US$120 million to produce green hydrogen and ammonia. The new plant will be located in Camaçari Industrial Complex in Bahia, and will have an initial production capacity of 10,000 mt/y of green hydrogen and 60,000 mt/y of green ammonia. Unigel expects the production to start in late 2023.
“Throughout our nearly 60-year history, we have always been attentive to technological innovations and have invested to meet industrial and agribusiness demands,” said Henri Slezynger, Unigel Board Chair and Founder. “With this project, Unigel takes the first step towards the decarbonization of several sectors, contributing substantially to combating climate change on the planet.”
Unigel said the plant will be the first industrial-scale green hydrogen production site in Brazil. At this moment, it said the integrated green hydrogen and ammonia plant is expected to be the largest in the world.
In the first phase of the project, Unigel will install three 20 MW standard electrolyzers from Thyssenkrupp Nucera, Dortmund, Germany, adding up to a total capacity of 60 MW. The company plans to quadruple its production of green hydrogen in the years following the inauguration by expanding the electrolyzer plant to a multi-hundred MW facility, which will produce approximately 40,000 mt/y of green hydrogen. The new factory is expected to employ 500.
The green products will be offered to customers who aim to decarbonize their production chains, including the steel industry, oil refining, and e-fuels. Unigel said green ammonia will also be used in the value chain of Unigel, as it is a raw material in the manufacturing of fertilizers and acrylics.
“Given the potential of Brazil in the generation of wind and solar energy, we believe that the country has a great opportunity to be a reference for the world in green hydrogen, a solution that brings versatility to transform renewable energy into raw materials and zero carbon fuels”, said Roberto Noronha Santos, Unigel CEO. Around three quarters of the energy used in electrolysis of the project comes from renewable sources.
Unigel currently has approximately 1 million mt/y of urea capacity from two plants it has leased from Petrobras (GM Jan. 29, 2021). It also has about 400,000 mt/y of ammonium sulfate capacity.