TotalEnergies to join UAE's Masdar, others in green hydrogen project to produce SAF

TotalEnergies will join UAE's renewables company Masdar and other partners in the co-development of a green hydrogen pilot project that will help produce sustainable aviation fuel in OPEC's third biggest producer which wants a 25% global market share of low carbon hydrogen by 2030.

The French energy group will participate in the Masdar-led project alongside the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa Group, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Siemens Energy and Marubeni Corp, Masdar said in a Jan. 19 statement. Having joined the initiative that was first announced in 2021, TotalEnergies will offer its expertise in SAF production and offtake, and supply the partner airlines, the statement added.

"The demonstrator plant will help to establish the commercial viability of green hydrogen as an essential decarbonized fuel of the future and will support Abu Dhabi's development as a green hydrogen hub," Masdar CEO Mohamed al-Ramahi said in the statement. "While the hydrogen market is still at a comparatively early stage, we firmly believe that by working together with international partners on projects such as this, we can help the hydrogen market develop its full potential and it will really take off in the years to come."

Partners in the initiative, which plan to proceed with the front-end engineering design stage later this year, had completed a range of evaluations on technology suppliers, feasibility studies and conceptual designs, while working closely with regulators on compliance issues, the statement added.

"By leveraging their respective areas of expertise across the energy spectrum, and their local and global market reach, the co-developers believe that the demonstrator project can pave the way to commercial production of SAF, helping to reduce production costs and making it commercially viable," the statement said

S&P Global Platts assessed hydrogen UAE PEM Electrolysis at $4.2484/kg Jan. 19, unchanged on the day, and Hydrogen UAE Alkaline Electrolysis at $3.6809/kg, also flat.