India’s ACME Group and Germany’s Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on a feasibility study to explore the joint development of large-scale hydrogen supply chains from ACME’s projects in Oman to supply hubs in Europe using the liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC) technology.
According to ACME and Hydrogenious, green hydrogen produced by ACME in these projects can be stored in LOHC and transported by tanker to Europe to supply and decarbonize industrial off-takers, energy and mobility.
“Hydrogenious’ LOHC technology is perfectly suited for large-scale hydrogen imports via maritime supply chains, enabling viable and cost-effective import vectors to Europe. By safely binding hydrogen to the thermal oil benzyltoluene (LOHC-BT) in a chemical process, the volatile green molecules can be efficiently stored and transported at ambient pressure and temperature using the existing liquid fuel infrastructure,” the companies claimed.
To note, both parties said they intend to extend the partnership to evaluate the hydrogen value chain from the U.S. to Europe, noting that Oman benefits from renewable energy resources such as solar and onshore wind while the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act offers production incentives leading to “competitive” hydrogen production cost.
Said Ashwani Dudeja, Group President and Director for ACME Group, commented: “Green Hydrogen is emerging as a real opportunity that can transform the global energy systems and meet the decarbonisation goals of industry and governments. While some will continue to challenge the economic and technical feasibility, we have taken conclusive decisions on our Oman project and partnering with Hydrogenious to develop efficient logistics using LOHC is the next step in delivering cost effective value proposition for our customers.”
Toralf Pohl, Chief Commercial Officer at Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies, stated: “Our collaboration will contribute to making clean hydrogen from the MENA region and the US available to European off-takers in the mid to long term. Due to its inherent safety, LOHC-BT is particularly suited for handling hydrogen in ports and urban environments, as it is hardly flammable, very stable and has a competitive volumetric storage density, enabling large-scale, long-distance hydrogen value chains without hydrogen losses.”
To remind, in late 2023, Hydrogenious LOHC Technologies signed a memorandum of understanding with Clarksons Specialised Products, a unit of UK shipbroker Clarksons, to collaborate on a roadmap to establish a maritime supply chain for the bulk transportation of green hydrogen in chemical tankers using Hydrogenious’ LOHC technology.