Green Hydrogen & Ammonia | Daures, Namibia

Green Hydrogen & Ammonia | Daures, Namibia

News from the Namibian Economist that Green Ammonia is anticipated this month (below) prompts a visit to the archive and an article published in December 2022

Engagements with Namibia, including her government and key investors at Paris and more recently Johannesburg has been met with considerable interest.  Given this I thought it may be useful to share news of an innovative and world leading green hydrogen and ammonia proposal being developed at Daures in Namibia.

Today’s Windhoek kick-off offers a chance to catch up with the developers, stakeholders and financiers taking the risk and driving it forwards. Some of the lessons-learned will doubtless form a useful template for schemes across the globe.

In phase one Daures hydrogen village will be producing about 109 tonnes of green ammonia on the back of solar energy. A small wind turbine mainly be for optimization and the interaction between the resources to scale up.

By March 2023 the project should be breaking ground and by the middle of next year the commissioning some of the long lead items.  By the end of next year, Namibia’s first natural green hydrogen green ammonia as well as carbon free agriculture will be live.

A met-mast campaign will capture actual tangible live data with respect to your wind as well as solar and run for a period of 12 to 18 months thereafter. The project will be bankable by commercial finance by phase four and would then be producing about 52,000 tonnes of green ammonia.

Passing water through an electrolyser splitting of the atoms into hydrogen and oxygen. One can then can store hydrogen, or passed through an ammonia synthesis loop which combines hydrogen with nitrogen for green ammonia.  Studies are underway to maximise the electrolyser capacity and optimal efficiency

Daures is 100% off grid and will be powering the total facility with fuel cells sitting at the centre of the below schematic:

Based around circular economic principles there’s a significant undertaken throughout  and a strong agricultural component. Subsequent phases will likely see significant requirements to establish either desalination plants more to pipe water to the facility from existing desalination plants. Hydrogen should be price competitive with carbon carbon based comparable energy sources at about two US dollars per kilo with a CapEx of 40 billion Namibian dollars.

Indeed, agriculture is one of the largest employers in the Namibian economy. The climate controlled environment. We will be producing in a season about 500 tonnes of tomatoes and about 600 tonnes of carrots. This facility should provide employment opportunities for up to 50 local Namibians will be sourced in partnership with the traditional authority.

There are significant CSR programmes establishing 14 community gardens. These communities will receive boreholes as long as 2000 metres squared width of irrigation net houses these communities then will also receive training at the Daures green hydrogen village on co-production as well as business management, the commitment from the village to these communities would be that the project will be the potential offtake for whatever agri-produce is used by the communities – should they wish to sell.

Daures is investigating the application of ammonia in greenhouse agriculture. Research into fuel cells and as well as looking further into derivatives. This includes items such as detergents, ammonium nitrate, explosives, which are commonly used as blasting for mining as well as detergents and fertiliser.

The community is not the most privileged communities and will be an enduring partner

Breaking of the ground in March we will have an official ground-breaking ceremony

The aim is for the first batch of green hydrogen in Namibia by the end of December 2023.

Stay informed through me and with the community of stakeholders:

Hydrogen Namibia