Making lower-cost, low-carbon hydrogen a reality

One of the world’s largest-capacity green hydrogen plants will soon begin construction in Brazil

Spotted: Hydrogen holds great promise for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fuel use and industry. One way to produce hydrogen is electrolysis, using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, and if the electricity used comes from renewable sources, then the result is low-carbon, ‘green’ hydrogen. Producing hydrogen in this way at scale is currently expensive, but an electrolysis plant in Brazil is hoping to prove that it can be an economic solution.

Green Energy Park (GEP) is constructing a green hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives production plant in Piauí, Brazil, which will have 10.8 gigawatts of electrolyser capacity once completed.

The Brazilian project will be built in six stages, with the first green hydrogen and ammonia produced in 2028, and the full site completed in 2035. The plant will be powered by the Brazilian energy grid, which uses 90 per cent hydropower.

GEP recently completed a $30 million (around €27.7 million) series A funding round, having previously secured €2 billion in investment funds from the EU’s Global Gateway initiative. The company has also secured long-term rights to a hydrogen port terminal in Brazil so that green ammonia can be exported to Krk, Croatia for distribution across Europe.

Hydrogen may well be the future of sustainable fuel, and numerous innovators are working to bring this about. Developments include a project supplying hydrogen power to construction sites and a platform that verifies whether hydrogen has come from green sources.