OAPEC: Arab countries have a strong presence on the global hydrogen scene

The research paper indicates that Arab countries have a strong presence on the global hydrogen scene and were able, in a short period of time, to sign several memoranda of understanding with international partners in the field of production and gas. use of hydrogen, in an approach that reflects the real desire to strengthen dialogue and strategic cooperation between Arab countries and the foreign countries that link them. Well-established economic relations, which will allow it to play an important role in the development of the hydrogen economy, and to gain a good share of this promising market, to add to its leading position in the energy markets a new role as a source of hydrogen in addition to its historic role as a global source of oil and gas for several decades.

The paper explains that the transition to adopting hydrogen as an energy source in the global future and establishing a value chain for it that is very flexible and easy to use, is still hampering to several technical and economic challenges which must be overcome by research and development, in particular the storage of hydrogen, due to the low value of its energy density compared to other fuels and thus increase the volume necessary for storage, both at production (and export) sites and in end-use applications such as hydrogen storage in distribution centers and refueling stations for fuel cell vehicles.

The article considers that the transport and distribution of hydrogen is also a great challenge from an economic point of view due to the high cost of its transport over long distances compared to other fuels. But on the other hand, there are several options for the transportation and distribution of hydrogen, either with the help of pipelines or with the help of trailers. In this case, the hydrogen can be transported either in the liquid state, or in the gaseous state under high pressure, or transported by tank. after having transformed the hydrogen into liquid ammonia to transport it to distant markets for production areas.

The document indicated that in order to overcome the high investment cost of building new hydrogen transport and distribution networks, it was possible to use current natural gas networks to transport hydrogen after bringing in minor modifications to adapt to the properties of hydrogen. All the more so since the Arab region has immense transmission and distribution networks that stretch for thousands of kilometers in most countries in the region. Where hydrogen can be mixed with natural gas up to 15% by volume with the introduction of some medium modifications to existing gas networks. In the case of its conversion to transport pure hydrogen (i.e. 100% hydrogen), this will require substantial modifications at greater costs but still lower compared to the introduction of new ones. transport and distribution networks.

The document says the Arab region has four existing pipelines to export gas from Arab countries located in North Africa to Europe, which can be tapped to export a mixture of hydrogen with gas or pure hydrogen to the future to meet the needs of the European market, which is expected to become a promising market for hydrogen, while ships will be ammonia is the viable option to export hydrogen from Arab Gulf countries to distant markets such than Asian markets.

The document showed that the number of Arab countries interested in investing in hydrogen production projects has increased to seven, and the number of planned hydrogen production and use projects has reached 20, the majority of which concern the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia with a total of 12 projects, while 6 projects are allocated for the production of blue hydrogen and blue ammonia, and 2 projects for the use of hydrogen as fuel in fuel cell vehicles, explaining that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia have already exported four trial shipments of ammonia to Asian markets, in a move that reflects Arab leadership in developing the economy hydrogen and its fuels to meet the needs of global markets. The task is like the Asian market.