Uruguay to carry out first pilot project for green hydrogen development

The Green Hydrogen Sector Fund, administered by the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) and other agencies, selected the first venture that will use green hydrogen as energy.

The H24U project will implement a cargo transportation system with a total investment of 43.5 million dollars. Also, it is being studied to inject the element in the natural gas networks.

The Technological Laboratory of Uruguay (LATU) and the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII) are co-organizers of this fund. The call, made in 2022, was aimed at financing and supporting the development, production and use of green hydrogen and its derivatives.

The H24U project, carried out by the consortium made up of the companies Saceem and CIR, was selected and will receive US$10 million non-refundable, to be granted over a period of 10 years. The group will be responsible for executing a venture that incorporates the technology for the development and production of green hydrogen; for this, an investment of 43.5 million dollars is foreseen. The initiative seeks to lay the foundations to advance one of the pillars of the second energy transition in Uruguay.

In the first instance, forestry trucks will be adapted to use the product as a source of energy. At present, these vehicles consume 28% of the demand, according to the National Energy Balance 2021, and are almost entirely supplied by petroleum derivatives.

Secondly, the possible injection of green hydrogen into the natural gas network of Paysandú is being studied, together with the company Conecta. This would make it possible to evaluate the subsequent incorporation on a larger scale, in order to decarbonize all of them progressively.

The aforementioned fund was carried out in two stages: first, a call for profiles, and then, a complete presentation of the commercial projects. A technical committee, composed of representatives of the academic sector, MIEM technicians and specialists in the field from the Netherlands and Germany, evaluated the proposals and recommended the selected one.