French multinational oil and gas company, TotalEnergies has joined with Germany-based leading energy technology firm, Siemens Energy on Abu Dhabi’s Masdar-led initiative to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from green hydrogen.
On the sideline of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2022, the senior executives from the three entities signed a collaboration agreement to act as co-developers for a demonstrator plant project, which will be established at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable urban development.
Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi CEO – Masdar
“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. 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.”
Last year, Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Siemens Energy, Marubeni Corporation, Etihad Airways and the Lufthansa Group signed a preliminary agreement for the demonstrator plant initiative.
In the first phase, the project partners will focus on the production of green fuel cells for passenger cars and buses in Masdar City. They will also build a plant to convert the majority of the green hydrogen into sustainable aviation fuel. At a later stage, the pilot program will explore the production of decarbonized fuels for the maritime sector.
Since January 2021, the partners in the initiative have completed a range of evaluations on technology suppliers, feasibility studies and conceptual designs, while working closely with regulators on compliance issues. The aim is to proceed to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage later this year.
Mr. Dietmar Siersdorfer, Managing Director Middle East and UAE, Siemens Energy, said, “Green hydrogen has a vital role to play in the decarbonization of many industries, with the aviation sector presenting an excellent opportunity. With deep expertise in electrolyzers and plant integration, we understand that collaboration is vital to success.”
Commenting on the partnership, Mr. Francois Good, Senior Vice President, Refining and Petrochemicals Africa Middle East and Asia at TotalEnergies, said, “In this project, TotalEnergies brings its expertise in renewable energy as well as SAF manufacturing and marketing advanced sustainable fuel production with the aim of acting directly on the carbon intensity of the energy products used by our customers. This is in line with our strategy of building a multi-energy company with the ambition to get to net-zero by 2050 together with society.”
By leveraging their respective areas of expertise across the energy spectrum, and their local and global market reach, Masdar, Siemens Energy and TotalEnergies anticipate that the demonstrator project can pave the way to commercial production of SAF, helping to reduce production costs and making it commercially viable.
