Hydrogen production…abundance in the Kingdom leads the world in this field

The Kingdom continues to achieve its goals in the clean energy sector, which are ambitious goals that it takes at many different levels, translating this into many projects and the signing of partnerships and agreements.
Among these important areas is the production and exploitation of which is a basic source of energy, and which contains great and promising opportunities in terms of investments in the coming decades.

Hydrogen production in Saudi Arabia

One of the most important features of the Kingdom in this field is that it has an abundance of resources, in addition to the components necessary to lead the world in this field.
The Kingdom aims to convert 50% of energy sources to renewable ones and reduce emissions, which would make Saudi Arabia a global leader in the field of hydrogen production.

NEOM green hydrogen project

The NEOM green hydrogen project, which is scheduled to be established in Oxagon City in NEOM, aims to build the largest carbon-free green hydrogen production plant in the world.
The project employs global technologies that have proven their effectiveness in this field, and adopts the latest innovative methods to provide a unified production capacity of about 4 gigawatts of solar and wind energy, which in turn will be used to produce up to 600 metric tons per day of carbon-free hydrogen by the end of 2026.

Hydrogen projects in the Kingdom

“NEOM” signed a partnership with the American “Air Products” and “ACWA Power” worth $5 billion, to build a green hydrogen production facility in the city of NEOM.
In early March 2021, Aramco announced a cooperation agreement with Hyundai to produce blue hydrogen.
On March 11, 2021, His Royal Highness Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Minister of Energy, and Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Peter Altmaier, signed a memorandum of understanding between the Saudi and German sides, on the production and exploitation of hydrogen.
In November 2022, a memorandum of understanding was signed to operate hydrogen ground services equipment at King Fahd International Airport in Dammam. To advance the hydrogen movement in the Kingdom, within the Saudi Green Initiative, and in accordance with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.
In May 2023, NEOM Green Hydrogen Company in the Kingdom announced the completion of the financial closing phase of the project to establish the largest green hydrogen production plant in the world, with a total investment of $8.4 billion.
In September 2023, the Kingdom and the United States of America signed a memorandum of understanding to establish intercontinental green transit corridors, which contribute to facilitating the process of transferring renewable electricity and clean hydrogen via cables and pipelines, as well as the establishment of railway lines.
In November 2023, the General Transport Authority launched, in Riyadh, the first hydrogen truck in the Kingdom on an experimental basis, in a step that reflects the Authority’s commitment to achieving its goals.
In August 2024, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) announced a partnership with NEOM to support plans for the transition towards a green economy by developing hydrogen production technologies and sustainable fuels in the Kingdom through three advanced strategic applied research projects.
In October 2024, the General Transport Authority launched the experimental launch phase of the hydrogen car in the private taxi activity for the first time in the Kingdom.
In November 2024, the Ministry of Energy announced that the Kingdom had joined the International Partnership Initiative to Promote the Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Economy (IPHE).

Hydrogen uses

About 99% of the hydrogen produced for industrial use is called “gray” hydrogen, and is derived primarily from natural gas, producing large amounts of carbon dioxide (nine parts carbon dioxide for every part hydrogen).
Producing more environmentally friendly blue hydrogen requires capturing the carbon dioxide and disposing of it in some way, such as trapping it deep underground, or using it in a beneficial way, such as in advanced oil extraction.

Green hydrogen production

Green hydrogen is produced by electrolysis, which is the process of separating water into hydrogen and oxygen. When the electricity used in the process comes from renewable sources, such as wind or solar, the result is completely carbon-free hydrogen.
Green hydrogen is the cleanest type of hydrogen, “which also includes yellow and pink – which are close to green hydrogen,” but it is the most expensive to produce, as one kilogram of green hydrogen costs about $6.
Green hydrogen is two to three times more expensive than blue hydrogen, according to a report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, but the cost is expected to decline in the next several years as electrolysis technology improves and scales up to industrial production levels.
Regarding green hydrogen storage, it is difficult to store and transport without a pipeline, and now in some places, such as the United States, hydrogen is much more expensive than other fuels such as natural gas.

Reducing the cost of producing green hydrogen

In 2020, the United Nations launched the “Green Hydrogen Catapult” initiative, bringing together seven of the world’s largest green hydrogen project developers with the goal of reducing the cost of production to less than $2 per kilogram, by 2026.
A recent analysis also suggests that $2/kg would be a potential turning point, making green hydrogen and its derived fuels competitive in multiple sectors, including steel production, fertilisers, power generation and long-range shipping.
China is currently the largest producer of hydrogen, with production estimated at about 33 million tons per year, while India plans to produce 5 million tons per year by 2030.

Areas of hydrogen utilization

Hydrogen can be used in two broad ways: it can be burned to generate heat or fed into a fuel cell to generate electricity, so there are many applications that green hydrogen can support.
Among the applications that this fuel can support are; Electric cars and trucks powered by hydrogen fuel cells, and container ships powered by liquid ammonia made from hydrogen, which is also a reliable alternative to natural gas for cooking and heating in homes.
It could be used to power “green steel” refineries that burn hydrogen as a heat source instead of coal, and hydrogen-powered electric turbines could also generate electricity during times of peak demand to help stabilize the power grid.
Hydrogen has a variety of applications and can be deployed in sectors such as industry and transportation (trains, planes and buses powered by hydrogen fuel cells).

Aramco and hydrogen projects

Saudi Aramco is a pioneer in the use of hydrogen as an energy source. In 2019, Aramco and Air Products opened the first hydrogen supply station at Air Products’ new technical center in the Dhahran Technology Valley in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The pilot station supplies high-purity compressed hydrogen fuel to an initial fleet of six Toyota Mirai electric cars that operate on hydrogen fuel cells.
In September 2020, Aramco and the Energy Economics Institute of Japan – in partnership with SABIC – produced the first shipment of blue ammonia and exported it from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to Japan, and this was the first experience in the world for the blue ammonia supply chain.
The experiment is an important achievement among several paths to achieving an economy based on carbon recycling.