Why Europe is likely to demand green hydrogen from Brazil

Brazil is expected to enjoy big opportunities to export green hydrogen to European countries as they seek to reduce their dependence on Russian natural gas, the CEO of Nexway, Marcel Haratz, told BNamericas. 

“Today Europe imports large volumes of LNG from the US, but if it wants sustainability it will need green hydrogen,” Haratz said. 

He said Brazil tends to have the cheapest green hydrogen in the world.  

"Basically, because we have abundant renewable energy and very good technical generation characteristics, with lots of wind and sunlight."

Haratz, who was attending a series of green hydrogen and ammonia events in Amsterdam, said there are already major projects in the Middle East and North Africa, reaching up to 120GW of electrolysis capacity, focused on future European supply.  

“Green hydrogen is what will drive the world's energy transition and replace Russian natural gas in Europe,” he predicted. 

Besides the energy and fertilizer industries, shipping is likely to become an important consumer of green hydrogen in the form of green ammonia. 

Since hydrogen in its gaseous state takes up significant space and compression requires large amounts of energy, the idea is to turn it into ammonia, where it remains in liquid form. 

“There are already major manufacturers of ammonia-powered engines for ships,” Haratz said.     

Part of the Comerc group, Nexway has five green hydrogen project agreements signed with Brazilian ports, four in the northeast and one in the southeast region. 

The deals foresee the construction of undertakings in partnership with Casa dos Ventos with electrolysis capacity of more than 2GW. 

It additionally has a protocol of intent with Piauí state to implement a 250kW pilot project for hydrogen generation and plans to start the construction of a medium-sized green hydrogen plant in the coming months in a location yet to be announced.  

“It will be the first of its size, on an industrial scale, to get off the drawing board in Brazil,” Haratz claimed.

OVERVIEW

Several Brazilian states are working to become green hydrogen hubs. 

In Ceará, Pecém port has signed MOUs for plants with companies such as Fortescue Future Industries (FFI), Qair Brasil, Enegix Energy and the Transhydrogen Alliance consortium. 

Pernambuco’s Suape port has either signed MOUs or is in negotiations with Neoenergia and Qair Brasil, while in Rio de Janeiro, Fortescue Future Industries is in talks with Porto do Açu. 

In Rio Grande do Sul, White Martins signed an MOU with the state for green hydrogen production. 

Some of these projects, such as FFI’s, Enegix’s, Quair Brasil’s and Transhydrogen Alliance’s, foresee the supply of green hydrogen and/or ammonia to the international market, mainly Europe.