Latest news with #lowcarbonfuel
Yahoo
23-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Factbox-Cancelled and postponed green hydrogen projects
MADRID (Reuters) -Developers of green hydrogen have scaled back investments and scrapped projects globally as elevated production costs and weak demand for the low-carbon fuel have made many ventures unviable. Here are some projects that have been cancelled, postponed or scaled back. EUROPE ** Energy company LEAG's plans to build one of Europe's largest green energy hubs on the site of disused coal-fired power plant units in eastern Germany have been postponed indefinitely, it said in June. ** Steelmaker ArcelorMittal had planned to convert two plants in Germany to green hydrogen, but it shelved the 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) plan in June despite the offer of 1.3 billion euros in public subsidies. ** Iberdrola, Europe's largest utility, scaled back its green hydrogen ambitions by almost two thirds in March 2024 after funding delays for some projects. Its 2030 production target fell to about 120,000 tons of green hydrogen a year, compared with a previous goal of 350,000 tons. ** Spain's Repsol cut its 2030 target for green hydrogen production by up to 63% in February to between 0.7 gigawatts (GW) and 1.2 GW of electrolyser capacity by the end of the decade, with Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz highlighting the challenges of a high-cost industry heavily reliant on subsidies. ** BP said in April that it was shutting its team looking into hydrogen and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport. ** Shell scrapped plans for a low-carbon hydrogen plant on Norway's west coast owing to lack of demand, it said in September, days after Equinor cancelled a similar project planned for Norway. ** Oil refiner and biofuel maker Neste withdrew in October from an investment into renewable hydrogen production at its plant in Porvoo, Finland, citing challenging market conditions. AUSTRALIA ** Origin Energy said in October that it intended to exit a potential hydrogen development project in the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub (HVHH) in New South Wales. ** Global commodities trader Trafigura in March abandoned plans to build a A$750 million ($491.5 million) green hydrogen plant at its Port Pirie lead smelter in South Australia. ** Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest in July last year cut back plans for his company, Fortescue, to produce 15 million metric tons of green hydrogen by 2030, blaming costs and the amount of renewable energy sources needed. ** Woodside Energy, Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, shelved two green hydrogen projects in Australia and New Zealand last September. ** The Queensland state government this year pulled funding for a A$12.5 billion plant to produce 200 tons of liquefied hydrogen by 2028, placing the future of one of Australia's largest and most advanced green hydrogen projects in serious doubt. Japanese investors Kansai Electric and Iwatani exited soon after. UNITED STATES ** U.S. startup Hy Stor Energy in September cancelled its reservation for more than 1 GW of electrolyser capacity with Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer Nel. ** Air Products said in February that it was looking to cancel plans to construct a 35 ton per day facility to produce green liquid hydrogen in Massena, New York, largely because of regulatory developments rendering existing hydroelectric power supply ineligible for the Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. ASIA ** Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries walked away from a coal-to-hydrogen project in Latrobe last December, citing time and cost pressures. ($1 = 1.5260 Australian dollars) ($1 = 0.8613 euros) (Compiled by Pietro LombardiEditing by David Goodman) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Cancelled and postponed green hydrogen projects
MADRID, July 23 (Reuters) - Developers of green hydrogen have scaled back investments and scrapped projects globally as elevated production costs and weak demand for the low-carbon fuel have made many ventures unviable. Here are some projects that have been cancelled, postponed or scaled back. ** Energy company LEAG's plans to build one of Europe's largest green energy hubs on the site of disused coal-fired power plant units in eastern Germany have been postponed indefinitely, it said in June. ** Steelmaker ArcelorMittal ( opens new tab had planned to convert two plants in Germany to green hydrogen, but it shelved the 2.5 billion euro ($2.9 billion) plan in June despite the offer of 1.3 billion euros in public subsidies. ** Iberdrola ( opens new tab, Europe's largest utility, scaled back its green hydrogen ambitions by almost two thirds in March 2024 after funding delays for some projects. Its 2030 production target fell to about 120,000 tons of green hydrogen a year, compared with a previous goal of 350,000 tons. ** Spain's Repsol ( opens new tab cut its 2030 target for green hydrogen production by up to 63% in February to between 0.7 gigawatts (GW) and 1.2 GW of electrolyser capacity by the end of the decade, with Chief Executive Josu Jon Imaz highlighting the challenges of a high-cost industry heavily reliant on subsidies. ** BP (BP.L), opens new tab said in April that it was shutting its team looking into hydrogen and liquefied natural gas (LNG) for transport. ** Shell (SHEL.L), opens new tab scrapped plans for a low-carbon hydrogen plant on Norway's west coast owing to lack of demand, it said in September, days after Equinor ( opens new tab cancelled a similar project planned for Norway. ** Oil refiner and biofuel maker Neste ( opens new tab withdrew in October from an investment into renewable hydrogen production at its plant in Porvoo, Finland, citing challenging market conditions. ** Origin Energy ( opens new tab said in October that it intended to exit a potential hydrogen development project in the Hunter Valley Hydrogen Hub (HVHH) in New South Wales. ** Global commodities trader Trafigura ( in March abandoned plans to build a A$750 million ($491.5 million) green hydrogen plant at its Port Pirie lead smelter in South Australia. ** Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest in July last year cut back plans for his company, Fortescue ( opens new tab, to produce 15 million metric tons of green hydrogen by 2030, blaming costs and the amount of renewable energy sources needed. ** Woodside Energy ( opens new tab, Australia's largest independent oil and gas producer, shelved two green hydrogen projects in Australia and New Zealand last September. ** The Queensland state government this year pulled funding for a A$12.5 billion plant to produce 200 tons of liquefied hydrogen by 2028, placing the future of one of Australia's largest and most advanced green hydrogen projects in serious doubt. Japanese investors Kansai Electric (9503.T), opens new tab and Iwatani (8088.T), opens new tab exited soon after. ** U.S. startup Hy Stor Energy in September cancelled its reservation for more than 1 GW of electrolyser capacity with Norwegian electrolyser manufacturer Nel ( opens new tab. ** Air Products said in February that it was looking to cancel plans to construct a 35 ton per day facility to produce green liquid hydrogen in Massena, New York, largely because of regulatory developments rendering existing hydroelectric power supply ineligible for the Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit. ** Japan's Kawasaki Heavy Industries (7012.T), opens new tab walked away from a coal-to-hydrogen project in Latrobe last December, citing time and cost pressures. ($1 = 1.5260 Australian dollars) ($1 = 0.8613 euros)
Yahoo
22-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The British wildcatters drilling for hydrogen
British drilling companies are pioneering a new industry they hope will trigger a green energy gold rush: seeking vast reserves of natural hydrogen hidden within the Earth's crust. Billions, maybe trillions, of tonnes of the lighter-than-air gas are thought to lie trapped in rock formations deep underground – once out of reach but nowadays accessible with modern drilling techniques. If the suspected reserves are proven, it could provide a plentiful new source of ready-made, low-carbon fuel that can be extracted straight from the earth just like oil and gas – but with one key difference. 'When hydrogen burns, it does not produce carbon dioxide, just water vapour,' says Prof Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who recently led a study for the Royal Society, the UK's most august scientific body, into natural hydrogen's potential. Her report suggests that the Earth is effectively a giant hydrogen factory, with various common rock types undergoing reactions that have been releasing hydrogen for billions of years. Those reactions are estimated to produce millions of tonnes of the gas a year, a process that has continued for billions of years. Some of that hydrogen will have risen to the surface and escaped into space; much more will have accumulated underground. 'It's just a matter of finding it,' says Sherwood Lollar. A recent research paper in Science estimated the amount of hidden hydrogen to be in the trillions of tonnes. If even a tiny fraction could be recovered it 'would supply the hydrogen needed to reach [global] net zero for 200 years', the paper said. One of the companies trying to turn this promise into reality is Sound Energy, listed on London's Aim market and hunting for hydrogen beneath Morocco's deserts along with joint venture partners Getech, a British firm specialising in crunching geological data. They have surveyed the whole country seeking out the rocks most likely to hold trapped hydrogen. Now they want to start drilling. 'We are securing hydrogen exploration permits in Morocco to enable ground-based surveying and drilling to validate potential hydrogen deposits,' says John Argent, Sound Energy's vice president for geoscience. Rivals include university spin-out Snowfox, co-founded by professors Chris Ballentine and Mike Daly, from the University of Oxford, and Prof Jon Gluyas, from Durham University, now scientific advisers to the company. Snowfox's AI-based 'hydrogen search engine' crunches geological data gathered from all over the planet to find potential hydrogen mines. A patent is pending so Snowfox is cautious about publicity. But at a conference on natural hydrogen held at London's Geological Society last month Mike Lawson, Snowfox's chief exploration officer, claimed natural hydrogen could soon become a globally important energy source. 'Natural hydrogen has the potential to provide cost-competitive supply at a fraction of the carbon footprint of alternative hydrogen sources,' he said. Gold rush Translating the promise of hydrogen as a fuel source into reality has been fiendishly difficult to date, however. Stellantis, the car giant that owns Vauxhall and Fiat, last week abandoned plans to develop hydrogen-powered vehicles because the product remained too 'niche'. A Lords report in 2023 dismissed the prospect of fuelling boilers with hydrogen as 'not a serious option'. Pilot 'hydrogen towns' across Britain have failed to get off the ground, scrapped after local opposition. Hydrogen's problems stem from its physical properties: it is expensive to produce and store, and can be dangerous if not handled properly given it is easily flammable. It would be easy to dismiss Britain's crop of hydrogen wildcatters as little more than day-dreamers. But serious players are paying attention. Natural hydrogen has the potential to change the economics of production, which could transform the market. Snowfox's recent share offering inspired BP's venture capital arm to lead investment into the company, along with mining giant Rio Tinto and investment firm Oxford Science Enterprises. In America the search and potential for natural hydrogen has inspired at least two of the world's richest men with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos investing in Denver-based Koloma, which is prospecting for hydrogen in North America. Gates's fund has also invested in France's Mantle8, which is prospecting in the Pyrenees mountains and has pledged it will find 10 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030. It claims to be able to use seismic imaging to 'see' hydrogen-producing rocks deep underground. 'Our science-first approach makes hydrogen discovery more scalable, accurate, faster and profitable,' said Emmanuel Masini, Mantle8's chief executive, in a fundraising round in March. Geologists have long known of natural hydrogen. It is often found mixed into natural gas (methane), but the amounts were considered small and uneconomic. That changed in 1987 when well-diggers drilling for water in the village of Bourakébougou, Mali, discovered wind rushing from the hole they had made in the ground. When one driller peered into the hole while smoking a cigarette, the wind exploded in his face and then caught fire, burning for weeks till it was capped. The 'wind' was pure hydrogen. Years later, in 2012, Denis Brière, a petrophysicist at Chapman Petroleum Engineering, a Canadian energy consultancy, interviewed witnesses, took samples and reported that the gas was 98pc hydrogen. Within a few months the well was hooked up to a generator that gave Bourakébougou its first electricity. All over the world the hunt for more such 'white hydrogen' sources, as the natural gas is known, began. Hydrogen is made naturally by two main processes. One involves water reacting with iron rich rocks, the other is radiolysis, when radioactive elements like uranium smash water molecules apart. Both processes turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. Geologists seeking hydrogen must hunt for the right rocks – either iron-rich or radioactive – deep underground. That would once have been a tough task, but the mass of global geological data now available, plus the advent of AI, has made it much easier. In Australia Gold Hydrogen has drilled the Yorke Peninsula near Adelaide, reporting finds of natural hydrogen up to 96pc purity plus helium, another valuable gas, with more test drilling under way this year. 'Successful results will lead to completion of a pilot project with the aim of commercialising both gases,' the company said. France is also progressing – its government has issued several exploration licences, covering areas from the Pyrenees to Lorraine in the north-east, as are companies in the US, Canada and Brazil. Cautious promise Why, though, do we need hydrogen? It's most widely known for its use as a rocket fuel and in balloons but its most vital use is in helping feed us. Hydrogen is essential to make the ammonia-based fertilisers on which crops depend. There are also the clean-energy implications if it cannot be reliably sourced and safely handled. The problem is that it's expensive and dirty to make. About 74m tonnes of hydrogen is produced annually, mostly from blasting coal or gas with superheated steam. That process generated 800m tonnes of CO2 last year, roughly 2pc of the 38bn tonnes humanity poured into the atmosphere. That total is set to triple by 2050 when global hydrogen demand is predicted to reach 220m tonnes, the Royal Society estimates. Unless, that is, new sources can be found. Environmentalists enthuse about green hydrogen, where renewable electricity is used to electrolyse water - breaking it down to hydrogen and oxygen. It sounds perfect till you look at the price: the electricity to make just one kilo of hydrogen could cost up to £9. That compares with £1-3 for making it from gas, and maybe double that if a CO2 capture system were added to limit environmental damage. By contrast, Sherwood Lollar estimates that natural hydrogen could be extracted for under £1 per kilo if it could be found in large quantities. Such suggestions make natural hydrogen sound like Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's dream fuel: cheap, clean and as renewable as it gets. Bizarrely, despite the UK being a global leader in exploiting underground energy assets such as coal, oil and gas, the search for natural hydrogen has only just started. But the results are already offering cautious promise. The British Geological Survey is mapping the radioactive or iron-rich rocks that might be worth drilling with Cornwall, Dartmoor, the Pennines and Scotland all being likely prospects. 'This could offer a strong foundation from which to expand [natural] hydrogen as a possible UK resource,' said the Royal Society report. The wildcatters may just be on to something. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
Telegraph
22-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
The British wildcatters on the hunt for hydrogen
British drilling companies are pioneering a new industry they hope will trigger a green energy gold rush: seeking vast reserves of natural hydrogen hidden within the Earth's crust. Billions, maybe trillions, of tonnes of the lighter-than-air gas are thought to lie trapped in rock formations deep underground – once out of reach but nowadays accessible with modern drilling techniques. If the suspected reserves are proven, it could provide a plentiful new source of ready-made, low-carbon fuel that can be extracted straight from the earth just like oil and gas – but with one key difference. 'When hydrogen burns, it does not produce carbon dioxide, just water vapour,' says Prof Barbara Sherwood Lollar, who recently led a study for the Royal Society, the UK's most august scientific body, into natural hydrogen's potential. Her report suggests that the Earth is effectively a giant hydrogen factory, with various common rock types undergoing reactions that have been releasing hydrogen for billions of years. Those reactions are estimated to produce millions of tonnes of the gas a year, a process that has continued for billions of years. Some of that hydrogen will have risen to the surface and escaped into space; much more will have accumulated underground. 'It's just a matter of finding it,' says Sherwood Lollar. A recent research paper in Science estimated the amount of hidden hydrogen to be in the trillions of tonnes. If even a tiny fraction could be recovered it 'would supply the hydrogen needed to reach [global] net zero for 200 years', the paper said. One of the companies trying to turn this promise into reality is Sound Energy, listed on London's Aim market and hunting for hydrogen beneath Morocco's deserts along with joint venture partners Getech, a British firm specialising in crunching geological data. They have surveyed the whole country seeking out the rocks most likely to hold trapped hydrogen. Now they want to start drilling. 'We are securing hydrogen exploration permits in Morocco to enable ground-based surveying and drilling to validate potential hydrogen deposits,' says John Argent, Sound Energy's vice president for geoscience. Rivals include university spin-out Snowfox, co-founded by professors Chris Ballentine and Mike Daly, from the University of Oxford, and Prof Jon Gluyas, from Durham University, now scientific advisers to the company. Snowfox's AI-based 'hydrogen search engine' crunches geological data gathered from all over the planet to find potential hydrogen mines. A patent is pending so Snowfox is cautious about publicity. But at a conference on natural hydrogen held at London's Geological Society last month Mike Lawson, Snowfox's chief exploration officer, claimed natural hydrogen could soon become a globally important energy source. 'Natural hydrogen has the potential to provide cost-competitive supply at a fraction of the carbon footprint of alternative hydrogen sources,' he said. Gold rush Translating the promise of hydrogen as a fuel source into reality has been fiendishly difficult to date, however. Stellantis, the car giant that owns Vauxhall and Fiat, last week abandoned plans to develop hydrogen-powered vehicles because the product remained too 'niche'. A Lords report in 2023 dismissed the prospect of fuelling boilers with hydrogen as 'not a serious option'. Pilot 'hydrogen towns' across Britain have failed to get off the ground, scrapped after local opposition. Hydrogen's problems stem from its physical properties: it is expensive to produce and store, and can be dangerous if not handled properly given it is easily flammable. It would be easy to dismiss Britain's crop of hydrogen wildcatters as little more than day-dreamers. But serious players are paying attention. Natural hydrogen has the potential to change the economics of production, which could transform the market. Snowfox's recent share offering inspired BP's venture capital arm to lead investment into the company, along with mining giant Rio Tinto and investment firm Oxford Science Enterprises. In America the search and potential for natural hydrogen has inspired at least two of the world's richest men with Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos investing in Denver-based Koloma, which is prospecting for hydrogen in North America. Gates's fund has also invested in France's Mantle8, which is prospecting in the Pyrenees mountains and has pledged it will find 10 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030. It claims to be able to use seismic imaging to 'see' hydrogen-producing rocks deep underground. 'Our science-first approach makes hydrogen discovery more scalable, accurate, faster and profitable,' said Emmanuel Masini, Mantle8's chief executive, in a fundraising round in March. Geologists have long known about natural hydrogen. It is often found mixed into natural gas (methane), but the amounts were considered small and uneconomic. That changed in 1987 when well-diggers drilling for water in the village of Bourakébougou, Mali, discovered wind rushing from the hole they had made in the ground. When one driller peered into the hole while smoking a cigarette, the wind exploded in his face and then caught fire, burning for weeks till it was capped. The 'wind' was pure hydrogen. Years later, in 2012, Denis Brière, a petrophysicist at Chapman Petroleum Engineering, a Canadian energy consultancy, interviewed witnesses, took samples and reported that the gas was 98pc hydrogen. Within a few months the well was hooked up to a generator that gave Bourakébougou its first electricity. All over the world the hunt for more such 'white hydrogen' sources, as the natural gas is known, began. Hydrogen is made naturally by two main processes. One involves water reacting with iron rich rocks, the other is radiolysis, when radioactive elements like uranium smash water molecules apart. Both processes turn water into hydrogen and oxygen. Geologists seeking hydrogen must hunt for the right rocks – either iron-rich or radioactive – deep underground. That would once have been a tough task, but the mass of global geological data now available, plus the advent of AI, has made it much easier. In Australia Gold Hydrogen has drilled the Yorke Peninsula near Adelaide, reporting finds of natural hydrogen up to 96pc purity plus helium, another valuable gas, with more test drilling under way this year. 'Successful results will lead to completion of a pilot project with the aim of commercialising both gases,' the company said. France is also progressing – its government has issued several exploration licences, covering areas from the Pyrenees to Lorraine in the north-east, as are companies in the US, Canada and Brazil. Cautious promise Why, though, do we need hydrogen? It's most widely known for its use as a rocket fuel and in balloons but its most vital use is in helping feed us. Hydrogen is essential to make the ammonia-based fertilisers on which crops depend. There are also the clean-energy implications if it cannot be reliably sourced and safely handled. The problem is that it's expensive and dirty to make. About 74m tonnes of hydrogen is produced annually, mostly from blasting coal or gas with superheated steam. That process generated 800m tonnes of CO2 last year, roughly 2pc of the 38bn tonnes humanity poured into the atmosphere. That total is set to triple by 2050 when global hydrogen demand is predicted to reach 220m tonnes, the Royal Society estimates. Unless, that is, new sources can be found. Environmentalists enthuse about green hydrogen, where renewable electricity is used to electrolyse water - breaking it down to hydrogen and oxygen. It sounds perfect till you look at the price: the electricity to make just one kilo of hydrogen could cost up to £9. That compares with £1-3 for making it from gas, and maybe double that if a CO2 capture system were added to limit environmental damage. By contrast, Sherwood Lollar estimates that natural hydrogen could be extracted for under £1 per kilo if it could be found in large quantities. Such suggestions make natural hydrogen sound like Energy Secretary Ed Miliband's dream fuel: cheap, clean and as renewable as it gets. Bizarrely, despite the UK being a global leader in exploiting underground energy assets such as coal, oil and gas, the search for natural hydrogen has only just started. But the results are already offering cautious promise. The British Geological Survey is mapping the radioactive or iron-rich rocks that might be worth drilling with Cornwall, Dartmoor, the Pennines and Scotland all being likely prospects. 'This could offer a strong foundation from which to expand [natural] hydrogen as a possible UK resource,' said the Royal Society report.
Reuters
07-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Chinese biofuel refiner Zhejiang Jiaao exports first SAF shipment
Companies Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech Stock Co Ltd SINGAPORE, May 7 (Reuters) - China's Zhejiang Jiaao Enprotech ( opens new tab said on Wednesday its east China-based subsidiary biofuel plant exported its first cargo of sustainable aviation fuel of 13,400 metric tons. The export came shortly after the company won an export license for the low-carbon aviation fuel for 2025, Jiaao said in a stock filing. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. The company did not say what was the cargo's destination, but multiple trade sources have said it was bought by a Western trader and will be heading to Europe. The cargo was likely loaded on to vessel Solar Cheryl, two trade sources said, with one adding that it was loaded on May 1-2. Solar Cheryl's end destination is Spain for now, data from tracker Vortexa and one shipbroking source showed.
