The R105-billion investment pledge by Hive Hydrogen at President Cyril Ramaphosa’s fifth South Africa Investment Conference was the biggest by far, resulting in Engineering News & Mining Weekly pursuing more information on it, only to find that the initial R105-billion is only Phase 1.

Remarkably, even 50 more R105-billion Hive Hydrogen projects would be far from sufficient to meet current demand projections for the green hydrogen-derived green ammonia product that Hive Hydrogen will sell to already confirmed Far East offtakers, Hive Hydrogen GM Colin Loubser told Engineering News & Mining Weekly in a Zoom interview. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)

The scale of what is required to turn around fossil fuel reliance in the maritime industry alone is what is driving Hive Hydrogen’s thought processes and already being studied by the Hive group are three more phases in the Eastern Cape, plus the feasibility of similar projects in Spain, Chile and Turkey.

The South African project, which was initiated in 2018, is seen as having the biggest socially positive early impact potential.

Its location at the enabling Port of Coega in the Eastern Cape is seen as putting the project in pole position to get the green ammonia that will be produced into international markets fastest and important for the Eastern Cape is that Hive Hydrogen’s initial socio-economic study indicates that Phase 1 of the project will employ a minimum of 20 000 people, with an estimated 50 000 being employed if all four phases go ahead.

Then Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille registered Hive Hydrogen’s green project as a Special Integrated Project, or SIP, which means it will be prioritised for implementation while following an expedited path to delivery of 950 000 t/y of green ammonia, with set and shorter time frames for regulatory processes.

Hive Energy and Thulani Gcabashe's BuiltAfrica – together as Hive Hydrogen – as well as Linde plc, through its wholly owned South African subsidiary Afrox, last year teamed up to establish the pioneering Eastern Cape plant.

Sod turning for the construction of an effective 4 000 MW of wind and solar assets is scheduled to take place in April 2025 and planning and procurement preparation is underway for full project commissioning in January 2028.

“Overall, the project is making good progress,” Hive Hydrogen chairperson Gcabashe stated in an email to Mining Weekly.

Using green ammonia to supplement the needs for existing ammonia requirements in fertiliser and explosives for the mining industry is being studied.

But the key focus in the near future will be on green ammonia availability to replace heavy fuel oil and diesel in the maritime industry.

“That component is a very big part of our strategy. We're hoping to extend the R105-billion first phase into a further three phases, but if the demand continues to head in the direction where the projections are, we could extend the four phases we’re planning to 50 phases and still not be big enough,” said Loubser.

Mining Weekly: Are the ships that will carry your green ammonia to the Far East market likely themselves to be fuelled by green ammonia?

Loubser: Absolutely. That's a growing trend and two ships have already been launched for that purpose. There are, I think, 14 more on order at the moment and there was an announcement last week of a 65 000 t vessel to transport green ammonia, which will itself be powered by green ammonia, being built. The shipbuilding industry is obviously seeing a massive upswing in their business. By the demand for ammonia-driven shipping. There are moves as well to change existing heavy fuel oil and diesel fuel fleets into ammonia clean fuel.

How is Hive Hydrogen funding this project?

Obviously, it's a huge amount of money that Hive couldn't fund itself, but the development side we are finding ourselves. To date, we’ve fully funded Hive’s side and Hive is quite a substantial business. We’re in 22 countries with three big ...