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Global chemical company Sasol Ltd, logistics giant DHL Group, and German green energy firm HH2E AG have signed an agreement for a joint initiative aimed at producing sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) based on green hydrogen (eSAF) in East Germany.
The planned eSAF production facility will be built in East Germany to serve airports, including Leipzig/Halle, HH2E said in a news release Monday. The expected initial production capacity is 200,000 metric tons per year, which would reduce an estimated 632,000 metric tons per year of carbon dioxide emissions. The facility would have the potential to scale up to 500,000 metric tons per year, and the estimated total reduction in emissions could reach approximately 1.58 million metric tons per year when the project achieves its full capacity. The group targets eSAF production by 2030, and the companies will “immediately specify the technical and financial planning, as well as the financing and definition of the regulatory framework”, HH2E said.
Sasol is introducing the Fischer-Tropsch technology for sustainable aviation fuels to the German market. The Fischer-Tropsch technology is optimally tailored for the large-scale production of sustainable fuels and chemicals, including sustainable aviation fuels through the power-to-liquids process, which uses hydrogen generated from renewable electricity paired with biogenic carbon dioxide from eco-friendly sources, according to the release.
The DHL Group will be a major consumer of the produced eSAF, and the project will help meet its goal of using more than 30 percent SAF blends in its air freight business by 2030, the release said.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus SE could “potentially” also join the initiative, according to the release, as another offtaker of the produced eSAF. The company is targeting to use 10 percent SAF for internal operational purposes in 2023 and reach 30 percent SAF usage in 2030.
“This initiative cements Germany’s central role in the global aviation sector and as a leader in the development of innovative technologies”, HH2E said in the release, adding that it would guarantee access to sustainable fuels of the future and significantly contribute to reducing aviation’s carbon dioxide emissions in Germany.
HH2E specializes in transforming intermittent inputs from renewable energy, especially excess power from solar and wind sources, into a consistent green hydrogen output. The hydrogen can subsequently be employed as a raw material for eSAF production.
By 2030, HH2E said it intends to establish a green hydrogen production capacity of 4 gigawatts (GW) in Germany, representing a “multi-billion-euro investment”. The company has already announced plans for two major facilities: one in Lubmin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and the other in Thierbach, close to Leipzig, Saxony. Additionally, the company has identified 15 prime locations across Germany for green hydrogen production, with a notable focus on the eastern region.
Funding for Green Hydrogen Site in Lubmin
Meanwhile, HH2E said it has completed the funding for the development phase of its green hydrogen production site in Lubmin, Germany through a collaboration with the Foresight Group, an institutional investor in green energy and environmental infrastructure.
A final investment decision (FID) is expected later in the year, with construction expected to be completed by mid-2025, HH2E said in a separate news release. The HH2E Lubmin project, located on the German Baltic coast, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, is designed for an initial input capacity of 100 megawatts by mid-2025, scalable to over 1 GW by 2030. The green hydrogen production plant will be capable of producing approximately 6,000 metric tons, or over 200,000 megawatt-hours, of green hydrogen per year during the first 100-MW phase, which will encompass high-capacity battery storage and electrolysis. Subsequent expansion phases are expected to increase capacity to over 1 GW, with annual production projected to exceed 60,000 metric tons of green hydrogen, HH2E said.
The plant will serve green hydrogen customers and offtakers, including large-scale energy and industrial consumers such as the chemical industry and commercial air and road transport operators. HH2E will collaborate with the MET Group, which will focus on facilitating the sale of green hydrogen produced by HH2E at both Lubmin and other plants in Germany, according to the release.
“Our plans are now closer to materializing as we initially envisioned, thanks to the collaboration with Foresight Group, which has served as a significant catalyst”, HH2E Co-Founder and Board Member Alexander Voigt said. “In March we confirmed the acquisition of 120 MW capacity of electrolysis equipment from the Norwegian manufacturer Nel which we can deploy across several HH2E locations.”
“Lubmin, with its abundance of renewable power sources, planned pipeline connections, and the substantial number of green hydrogen supply agreements already signed with offtakers in the area, presents a highly promising location for green hydrogen production. These factors contribute to our optimism regarding an expedited FID process”, Voigt said.
“We are delighted to have made this second investment in developing green hydrogen in Germany”, Foresight Group Partner Chris Holmes said. “The Lubmin project adds to the Thierbach project we invested in at the start of 2023, and together the projects are progressing well towards their Final Investment Decisions. Foresight sees hydrogen playing a key role in decarbonizing heavy transport, industry, and other hard-to-abate sectors of the economy. We look forward to seeing the projects’ progress towards construction phases in the coming months”.
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