The world's first ever green hydrogen from ethanol plant is being built in São Paulo, Brazil. Shell is the main initiator of the project, in partnership with Raízen, Hytron, Toyota, Senai and the University of São Paulo. They plan to start production in the second half of 2024.

The project involves an investment of 50 million Brazilian reals and is expected to produce 4.5 kg of green hydrogen per hour, enough to power up to three buses and one smaller vehicle.

The ethanol needed to produce the hydrogen will be supplied by Raízen, the world's largest producer of sugarcane ethanol.

"This technology could help decarbonise sectors that consume energy from fossil fuels," said Shell Brasil president Cristiano Pinto da Costa.

The conversion of ethanol to hydrogen will be done through a chemical process called "steam reforming", which is where ethanol, exposed to specific temperatures and pressures, reacts with water inside a reactor. The cost of producing hydrogen from ethanol is expected to be comparable to the cost of hydrogen from natural gas reforming, but with emissions similar to those from wind-powered water electrolysis. During the presentation at the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo, it was also mentioned that Brazil can go beyond carbon neutrality and even have "negative emissions".

As is well known, in order to achieve carbon neutrality, a country must emit and remove carbon from the atmosphere in an equivalent volume. If Brazil is to have negative emissions, the carbon sequestration must be greater than the emissions themselves.

São Paulo is currently focusing on foreign investment to promote green energy. In 2024, when Brazil will be in the spotlight for its G20 presidency, São Paulo wants to position itself as one of the world's largest exporters of ethanol, using renewable resources as much as possible. São Paulo is looking for investors mainly from the Middle East and China, but also from the European Union.

Lucas Ferraz, state secretary for international relations in the São Paulo state government, said during a meeting at the recently concluded COP28 climate conference in Dubai that "there is a huge space for foreign companies to invest in this area, especially when we are talking about two things: green hydrogen and SAF, something that the whole world will need." A number of countries are interested in cooperating with Brazil in the production of green hydrogen, notably China, the US, Middle Eastern countries, Asia in general, as well as EU member states.

Brazil is the second largest ethanol producer in the world (after the USA). Up to 45% of ethanol is produced in São Paulo. Natália Resende, Secretary of State for Environment, Infrastructure and Logistics, says that projects worth more than BRL 17 billion have already been supported in the renewable energy sector and that São Paulo is ready to receive further investments.

Hydrogen is considered by many to be the fuel of the future, and Brazil is geographically well placed to export it, in addition to having a well-developed industry. It follows from the above that for Brazil, the production of green hydrogen is an investment priority, which represents a great potential also in the framework of bilateral cooperation with the Czech Republic.

Source : https://www.mzv.cz/saopaulo/cz, Toyota Comunica

Photo - source: toyotacomunica.com.br