With an initial investment of US$ 120 million (R$ 650 million), the new Unigel factory is expected to start operating by the end of 2023.

Unigel is one of the largest companies in the chemical sector in Latin America and leader in segments such as fertilizers and ammonia, and has now decided to apply new investments in green hydrogen in order to replace fossil fuels. The plan of Unigel is to build the first and largest green hydrogen factory in Brazil, generating jobs and more energy options in the current energy matrix.

Unigel says that the Brazilian green hydrogen factory will be the largest in the world  

Unigel's green hydrogen factory, as already mentioned, will be the largest in the world, and will be announced this Tuesday (26) in Camaçari (BA), where the green hydrogen factory will be installed, alongside two other factories, which produce ammonia and styrenic.

The green hydrogen factory will be in full operation by the end of next year, with a production of more than 10 tons of the product per year. A part of the hydrogen will be converted into 60 thousand tons of green ammonia per year.

“It is a movement that will put us at the forefront of decarbonization in Brazil”, says Roberto Noronha, president of Unigel.

With some customers already interested and thus believing in the rapid growth in demand, Unigel aims to quadruple the factory's production capacity in 2025, extending it to export.

Green hydrogen and its use in the current energy matrix

The so-called green hydrogen is produced based on water and electricity from a renewable source, as well as wind and solar energy. The premise is to replace the currently used product, gray hydrogen, based on fossil fuels.

“Green hydrogen is going to be the energy source of humanity's future, because, in essence, it is absolutely clean”, says Noronha.

The fuel can be used in its raw form or converted into ammonia, which is an essential raw material for the steel, oil refining and fertilizer industries and also used in thousands of other products.

One of the great advantages of hydrogen is that it is considered an energy vector, that is, it allows energy to be stored and thus be used in other sectors, favoring integration.

Attracting the interest of foreign entities, projects to enable the commercial production of green hydrogen in Brazil already exceed US$ 20 billion, with a priority focus on exports. Today, the main initiatives are concentrated in the Port of Pecém, in Ceará; at Porto do Açu, in Rio de Janeiro; and at the Port of Suape, in Pernambuco.

Operation of the Unigel plant in Brazil  

The company responsible for supplying the electrolysers will be Thyssenkrupp, a diversified industrial group in the field of technology. The electrolysers will give “life” to the factory, which will apply a large electric current and separate the molecules from the solutions.

“The company has mastered electrolysis technology for a long time, but before that it had other industrial applications”, explains Paulo Alvarenga, president of Thyssenkrupp to South America.

“Due to the climate emergency, we expanded the technology for the electrolysis of water”. The equipment will be shipped in modules, inside 48 containers, by ship, to be sold by its subsidiary here in Brazil.