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The world should move forward with pilot projects for fertilizers and fuels to enable the green hydrogen economy to grow on a larger scale, says project integrator and technology provider Green Hydrogen Solutions founder and CEO Ebrahim Takolia.

“We would like to partner with a group of farmers to develop a pilot project for fuels and fertilizers. Initially, it will be more expensive than current supplies, but over time as we gain the knowledge and experience from the pilot project, we can be competitive with current options within three to five years,” says Takolia.

Ammonia is the building block of all mineral fertilizers. Today ammonia is produced using hydrogen from fossil fuels. To produce green fertilizers, the hydrogen needed to make ammonia will come from water using electrolysis based on renewable electricity. After extracting the hydrogen to create green ammonia, all other processes will remain the same.

Using the green hydrogen, it is also possible to power farm equipment and vehicles, enabling fossil-fuel free transportation.

It is imperative for food and energy security that the local production of zero carbon fertilizers and fuels is encouraged. The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in a global shortage of fertilizers and increased fuel costs. Many countries and agencies are rethinking how to ensure security of supply for these critical inputs into agriculture.

All industries, including farming, need to heed the call for decarbonisation as carbon border taxes will factor into all input costs to produce agricultural products, which will affect exporters of these agricultural products to key markets.

“Once the costs of carbon taxes and proposed carbon border taxes are included, as well as the geopolitical uncertainty risk that will be priced into global markets for oil, gas and liquefied natural gas going forward, green hydrogen as an input into fertilizers and fuels will be a cheaper alternative in the long term,” notes Takolia.

“As more distributed energy sources come online, significant surplus renewable energy can be used with dedicated sourced of renewable energy to produce green hydrogen and its derivatives.”

Thus, farmers should consider enabling market efficiency in the trading of renewable electricity and enable hydrogen to be traded for domestic use and exports.

He adds that Green Hydrogen Solution’s techno-economic modelling of its local projects indicates that using its technology and methodology can achieve a below-average hydrogen price for a pilot plant, compared to those of similar pilot projects. 

Specifically on the pilot project, we would like to produce fertilizers for agriculture, fuels to run tractors, bakkies and trucks and to provide back-up power by storing renewable electricity. A large farm or a group of farmers who would commit to purchasing the produced product will be ideal partners for this project.

Green Hydrogen Solutions focuses on innovation and applying technology to actual projects. The company’s technology has global applicability, and Takolia says it is assessing pilot projects and is in discussions with potential project partners.

The company has been Beta testing its application (app) – Ecosystem to facilitate the integration of variable renewable electricity into a green hydrogen ecosystem.