Sharjah-based Beeah Energy, a subsidiary of Beeah Group, and Chinook Sciences, a company based in the United Kingdom, have inked a deal to begin developing the region’s first waste-to-hydrogen plant.
The factory will also produce environmentally friendly hydrogen at a reasonable cost and high-quality activated carbon.
According to state news agency WAM, non-recyclable waste wood and plastic will be processed using Chinook RODECS gasification and pyrolysis technology, which can generate up to 18,000kg of green hydrogen per day at full operational capacity.
“The technology breaks down hydrocarbons from waste through advanced thermal treatment to release and recover green hydrogen. Then, when the green hydrogen is used in vehicles, it emits only water as a by-product,” Dr Rifat Chalabi, chairman and co-founder of Chinook Sciences Group said of the RODECS gasification and pyrolysis technology.
The UAE has previously stated its intention to become a significant hydrogen producer and to achieve a 24 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030. The UAE set a target of 25% worldwide market share for low-carbon hydrogen by 2030 at last year’s UN Climate Change Conference, COP26.
Green hydrogen production is reported to be much less expensive than that of fossil fuels. The waste-to-hydrogen plant will be located near to the fueling station to avoid the high expense of hydrogen transportation. The station will be equipped to generate enough hydrogen for numerous large vehicles and buses to operate on a daily basis.
Chinook’s unique RODECS technology is responsible for the green hydrogen’s cost-effectiveness and delivery. The plant’s operating model enables it to operate financially while hydrogen demand is still developing, and this will be accomplished by relying exclusively on the plant’s secondary revenue stream of activated carbon generation during the plant’s initial months of operation. The high-grade activated carbon produced will be used in the environment as a filtration media to purify water and air by filtering dangerous contaminants such as bacteria and viruses.
“Beeahhas always recognised the value of energy recovery from waste, and this new project will not only showcase the potential of waste-to-hydrogen, but it will also support a circular economy across multiple fronts throughout the region,” said Khaled Al Huraimel, group CEO of Beaah.
Apart from the new hydrogen project, Beeah and Masdar, Abu Dhabi’s state-owned renewable energy business, are slated to start a waste-to-energy plant in the next months that will create 30 megawatts of power from rubbish at a Sharjah land dump.