Cepsa has accelerated in the great European race for green hydrogen by announcing the construction of the largest ammonia plant in southern Europe, which will initially be used to transport this fuel to the Netherlands. It will build it in San Roque, in Cádiz, near the port of Algeciras, and will invest 1,000 million euros in the project.
Ammonia is the form chosen by the main European companies to transport green hydrogen by ship and subsequently inject it into the continent’s hydroduct networks. It is produced by adding a particle of nitrogen to hydrogen and its transport by ship, according to Cepsa, is easier than by hydroduct, as it requires temperatures of -33 degrees Celsius, compared to -253 degrees for the tube option.
The new plant will produce up to 750,000 tons of ammonia per year, which will be transported by ship and in a liquid state to the Netherlands, which is preparing its ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam for this purpose. The country wants to give a coup in the particular European geostrategy of hydrogen.
The announcement was made in the presence of King Felipe VI and King of the Netherlands, Guillermo Alejandro, in an act that was also attended by the Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera. Yesterday Iberdrola announced in the presence of the Dutch monarch the construction of another large ammonia plant in Huelva with an investment of 750 million and also intended to take advantage of the future maritime corridor between Spain and the Netherlands.
The Netherlands wants to get ahead of the H2Med hydroduct project between Spain and France and become the great gateway for green hydrogen to Europe. His plan is to receive hydrogen in his national ports from 2027, for which he is preparing the infrastructure.
Cepsa has also signed two important business agreements to shape the new hydrogen maritime corridor. The first is with a Norwegian distributor, Yara Clean, to take the hydrogen, once regasified, to Belgium, Germany and Denmark. The second has been signed with the Dutch company Gasunie, which guarantees access to its green hydrogen transport network in the Netherlands and will connect the Port of Rotterdam with other European industrial clusters.
This Tuesday’s event with Iberdrola is part of this dynamic. In it, two memorandums of understanding were signed in the presence of the King of the Netherlands in Puertollano with the operator of the port of Rotterdam, ACE Terminal, and with the operator of the Dutch hydrogen network Hynetwork to sell part of the 100,000 tons of ammonia from hydrogen that the Spanish electric company plans to produce in Huelva.
