Global chemical company Sasol Ltd, logistics giant DHL Group and German green energy firm HH2E AG have signed an agreement for a joint initiative to produce green hydrogen-based sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) (eSAF) in East Germany.
The planned eSAF production facility will be built in East Germany to serve airports including Leipzig/Halle, HH2E said in a press release on Monday. The planned initial production capacity is 200,000 metric tons per year, which would reduce approximately 632,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. The facility would have the potential to scale up to 500,000 metric tons per year, and the estimated total emissions reduction could reach approximately 1.58 million metric tons per year when the project reaches full capacity. The group is targeting eSAF production by 2030, and the companies will “immediately specify technical and financial planning, as well as financing and defining the regulatory framework,” HH2E said.
Sasol is introducing Fischer-Tropsch technology for sustainable aviation fuels to the German market. Fischer-Tropsch technology is optimally suited for the large-scale production of sustainable fuels and chemicals, including sustainable aviation fuels through the power-to-liquids process, which uses hydrogen generated from electricity renewable combined with biogenic carbon dioxide from ecological sources. , according to the statement.
DHL Group will be a major consumer of the eSAF produced, and the project will help achieve its goal of using more than 30 percent of SAF blends in its air transport business by 2030, the statement said.
Aircraft maker Airbus SE could “potentially” join the initiative, the statement said, as another buyer of the produced eSAF. The company aims to use 10% of SAF for internal operational purposes by 2023 and reach 30% of SAF use by 2030.
“This initiative consolidates Germany’s central role in the global aviation sector and as a leader in the development of innovative technologies,” HH2E said in the statement, adding that it would ensure access to sustainable fuels of the future and would contribute significantly to reducing aviation’s carbon dioxide. emissions in Germany.
HH2E specializes in transforming intermittent inputs of renewable energy, especially excess energy from solar and wind sources, into constant green hydrogen production. The hydrogen can subsequently be used as a raw material for the production of eSAF.
By 2030, HH2E said it intends to establish a green hydrogen production capacity of 4 gigawatts (GW) in Germany, which represents an “investment of several million euros”. The company has already announced plans for two large facilities: one in Lubmin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the other in Thierbach, near Leipzig, Saxony. In addition, the company has identified 15 prime locations in Germany for the production of green hydrogen, with a notable focus on the eastern region.
Funding for the green hydrogen site in Lubmin
Meanwhile, HH2E said it has completed financing for the development phase of its green hydrogen production site in Lubmin, Germany through a partnership with Foresight Group, an institutional investor in green energy and environmental infrastructure.
A final investment decision (FID) is expected by the end of the year, and construction is expected to be completed by mid-2025, HH2E said in a separate press release. The HH2E Lubmin project, located on Germany’s Baltic coast in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is designed for an initial input capacity of 100 megawatts in mid-2025, scalable to more than 1 GW in 2030. The green hydrogen production plant will be capable of producing approximately 6,000 metric tons, or more than 200,000 megawatt-hours, of green hydrogen per year during the first 100 MW phase, which will include storage and electrolysis of high capacity batteries. Subsequent expansion phases are expected to increase the capacity to more than 1 GW, with a projected annual output exceeding 60,000 metric tons of green hydrogen, HH2E said.
The plant will serve green hydrogen customers and buyers, including large-scale energy and industrial consumers such as the chemical industry and commercial air and road transport operators. According to the statement, HH2E will collaborate with the MET Group, which will focus on facilitating the sale of green hydrogen produced by HH2E both at Lubmin and at other plants in Germany.
“Our plans are closer to materializing than we originally thought, thanks to the collaboration with Foresight Group, which has served as an important catalyst,” said HH2E co-founder and board member Alexander Voigt. “In March we confirmed the acquisition of 120MW capacity electrolysis equipment from the Norwegian manufacturer Nel, which we can deploy at several HH2E locations.”
“Lubmin, with its abundance of renewable energy sources, planned pipeline connections and the substantial number of green hydrogen supply agreements already signed with buyers in the area, presents a very promising location for the production of ‘green hydrogen. These factors contribute to our optimism regarding an accelerated FID process,” Voigt said.
“We are delighted to have made this second investment in the development of green hydrogen in Germany,” said Chris Holmes, partner at Foresight Group. “The Lubmin project joins the Thierbach project in which we invested in early 2023, and together the projects are progressing well towards their final investment decisions. The outlook sees hydrogen playing a key role in the decarbonisation of heavy transport, industry and other sectors of the economy that are difficult to reduce. We look forward to seeing the progress of the projects towards the construction phases in the coming months.”
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