thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers, a joint venture of industrial and technology conglomerate thyssenkrupp and Industrie De Nora, announced today that it has been awarded a contract by industrial gases company Air Products, for the delivery of a more than 2 GW electrolysis plant for one of the world’s largest green hydrogen projects at NEOM in Saudi Arabia.

The award follows the announcement last year by Air Products   of a partnership with ACWA Power and NEOM for a $5 billion large-scale green hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy, aiming to supply 650 tons per day of carbon-free hydrogen for transportation, powering buses and trucks worldwide. The facility will be located in NEOM, an area northwest Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea, currently being developed as a new model for urbanization and sustainability.

Denis Krude, CEO of thyssenkrupp Uhde Chlorine Engineers, said:

“As a world market leader in electrolysis we bring in two decisive factors to realize such gigawatt projects: With our large-scale standard module size and gigawatt cell manufacturing capacity per year together with our Joint Venture partner De Nora we are able to deliver large capacity projects today. With this gigawatt project, we are committed to invest into ramping up our manufacturing capacities further. We also aim for a strong local setup which is key to delivering customized service solutions throughout the entire plant life-cycle and enables our strategic partner in their vision to become a global decarbonization pioneer.”

Hydrogen is viewed as one of the key building blocks of the transition to a cleaner energy future, particularly for sectors with difficult to abate emissions, in which renewable energy solutions such as wind or solar are less practical.

Despite being the most abundant element in the universe, however, there are no pure hydrogen deposits on earth, and it must be extracted from other materials. The extraction process often creates pollutants and GHG emissions. Significant investments are required to develop clean extraction processes, such as green hydrogen, which uses a renewable energy-powered electrolysis process to extract hydrogen from water.

The new facility, scheduled for production in 2026, will be operated upon commissioning by NEOM, ACWA Power and Air Products, producing hydrogen to be synthesized into carbon-free ammonia for export exclusively by Air Products to global markets.

Dr. Samir J. Serhan, Chief Operating Officer at Air Products, said:

“This project milestone with thyssenkrupp furthers our strong progress at NEOM to deliver carbon-free hydrogen on a massive scale in the Kingdom and for the world. The development and execution of this innovative megaproject is one of many required to drive a successful energy transition, and we look forward to continuing to develop, build, own and operate facilities that help address the world’s significant energy and environmental challenges. This project is the kickoff to become a frontrunner in the green hydrogen economy.”