Saudi Arabia to consider producing nuclear-powered hydrogen: energy minister

Saudi Arabia could produce hydrogen powered by nuclear energy, as part of a push by the world's largest exporter of crude to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons, the kingdom's energy minister said Jan. 19

"We will have a field day with blue hydrogen because again, we're the cheapest cost producer producer of gas. We're doing a huge investment in shale gas in Saudi Arabia," he said.

"There is another funky type of hydrogen which we call...pink now, so hopefully when we do our our nuclear investments...you will see Saudi pink hydrogen being produced somewhere in Saudi Arabia," Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told the Davos World Economic Forum, which is being held online due to COVID-19.

Pink hydrogen -- also known as red or purple hydrogen -- refers to manufacturing the gas from electrolysis powered by nuclear energy. The manufacturing process involves nuclear power harnessed to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Blue hydrogen is produced through steam methane reformation, while the green variant is sourced through electrolysis powered by solar and wind energy.

Saudi Arabia's plans for nuclear energy are nascent. The country currently has no nuclear power generation but has said it will add around 17 GW of nuclear capacity by 2040 and has ambitions to bring two reactors with a combined capacity of 3.2 GW online within the next decade.

In the week ended Jan. 15, Prince Abdulaziz said the kingdom had plans to develop its "huge" uranium resources with a view to supporting its nascent nuclear power program as well as selling onto the world market.

Gulf oil exporters such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE are undertaking ambitious plans to become leading manufacturers of hydrogen, as they look to develop alternatives to hydrocarbons.

The UAE, OPEC's third-biggest oil producer, is targeting a 25% global market share of low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 with the launch of its Hydrogen Leadership Roadmap at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2021.

Hydrogen has risen in prominence as a key energy resource for decarbonizing the global energy system. The total value of announced investments in hydrogen in the Middle East is set to hit $44 billion, according to data from S&P Global Platts Analytics.

Around $35 billion worth of the announced projects are set to be operational by 2030.

The UAE was the first country in the Middle East to consider producing hydrogen using a nuclear baseload.

Emirate Abu Dhabi plans to produce around 1 million mt/year of hydrogen from nuclear power once all four units of its Barakah Nuclear Power Plant are operational, the CEO of Emirates Nuclear Energy Corp. said Jan. 12.

Each plant has a capacity of 1.4 GW. Together the four plants will supply up to 25% of the UAE's power needs.