by Ed Richardson, Now Media
Namibia is banking on energy to drive economic growth – traditional hydrocarbons through offshore oil and by leveraging abundant sunshine and wind for “green hydrogen”.
Both Shell and TotalEnergies have announced the discovery of significant reserves of light fuel oil and gas in Namibian territorial waters. The discoveries are in deep water close to 300 km off the coast.
It is estimated that the offshore deposits hold about three billion barrels of oil and will provide an estimated N$3,5-billion annually in royalties and taxes for the Namibian government.
Because of the distance offshore and the lack of a business case for a mega refinery in Namibia, it is believed the oil will be transferred from floating platforms at the wellheads, which will mean limited local job creation. Transforming air into hydrogen using solar and wind energy holds more promise for local value-add and jobs.
Hydrogen fuel cells are competing with battery electric power supplies to power future vehicles. Anglo American recently announced that it had started using hydrogen fuel cell-powered 90-ton mine haul trucks at its Mogalakwena PGMs mine in South Africa.
At the unveiling of the new trucks, Duncan Wanblad, chief executive of Anglo American, said “if this pilot is successful, we could remove up to 80% of diesel emissions at our open pit mines by rolling this technology across our global fleet”.
On the passenger side, most of the major OEMs have fuel cell-powered vehicles in their ranges. To produce hydrogen, molecules are split out of H2O (water) through electrolysis, which is energy intensive. However, “green” hydrogen uses renewable energy to power the electrolysis process. For transport, nitrogen (N) is combined with the hydrogen (H) to produce ammonia (NH3), which is a more manageable liquid.
Liquid hydrogen has to be stored at cryogenic conditions of -253°C, whereas ammonia can be stored at -33°C. Although volatile, ammonia is much less flammable than hydrogen.
"Namibia's green hydrogen strategy will unlock greater investment and establish the country as a regional and global decarbonisation champion" - President Hage Geingob
According to a research note by HSBC, ammonia contains 1,7 times more hydrogen per cubic metre than liquefied hydrogen. Ammonia is “cracked” into hydrogen and nitrogen with the use of catalysts. In his 2022 New Year message, Namibian president Hage Geingob said Namibia’s green hydrogen strategy would unlock greater investment and would establish the country as a regional and global decarbonisation champion.
In November 2021, the government announced Hyphen Hydrogen Energy as the preferred bidder status for the development of the country’s first large-scale vertically integrated green hydrogen project.
The project will be situated in the Tsau/Khaeb national park – the former diamond-rich Sperrgebiet in the southwestern Namib desert. Hyphen is a Windhoek-based joint venture between British company Nicholas Holdings, and Enertrag South Africa, a division of German energy company, Enertrag.
The project, representing an estimated $9,4-billion investment, will produce 300 000 tons of product a year, as both pure hydrogen and ammonia. The agreement grants the company the right to operate the project for 40 years, with operations set to begin in 2026 – years ahead of the oil production.
Namibia is the first African state to include environmental protection in its constitution. Green energy is a major pillar of its Harambee Prosperity economic recovery plan launched in March 2021. Hyphen estimates the project will create 15 000 direct construction jobs and 3000 jobs during full operations – and that 90% of them will be filled by locals. To put the size of the US$9,4-billion investment into perspective – Namibia's entire GDP in 2020 was US$10,7-billion.
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