New Energies, new possibilities

Seifi Ghasemi hints on an analyst call that the company will phase out grey hydrogen in 15 years, shoots down notion of an H2 spin-off in short-term   

Air Products’ CEO Seifi Ghasemi has pushed back on analyst concerns that there will not be sufficient demand for blue and green hydrogen by 2030 to justify the industrial gases firm’s early investments into major projects. “The part that I can confidently tell the investors, believe me, there is demand,” he said during the company’s second quarter earning call. “Do not buy into this business that there is no demand. There is demand.”

Air Products has agreed to offtake all the green ammonia being produced at the 2.2GW Neom complex currently under construction in Saudi Arabia for a 30-year period. The firm is also a shareholder on the project, which reached a $8.4bn financial close last year.

However, the offtake deal is a huge bet that whatever price the industrial gases firm has agreed to buy at, there will be third-party buyers willing to pay more, once the project comes on line at the end of 2026 or beginning of 2027.

However, Air Products has not signed third-party offtake agreements for either megaproject, with the lack of guaranteed returns prompting anxiety that the industrial gases firm would be unable to recoup its costs, let alone make a profit off these investments.  

'We won't sign clean hydrogen offtake deals until we get the right price — despite investor pressure': Air Products CEO | Recharge (hydrogeninsight.com)

Plug Secures First International PEM Electrolyzer Certification in Korea.

Plug Power Inc. (NASDAQ: PLUG), a global leader in comprehensive hydrogen solutions for the green hydrogen economy, secured the first international safety and performance certification in Korea for electrolyzer manufacturing, enabling the commercial sale of Plug electrolyzer systems in the Korean market. This achievement was completed through Plug’s collaboration with SK E&S in the form of SK Plug HyVerse, a joint venture aimed at advancing the hydrogen sector within the Asian market.

Plug achieved certification of its EX425D – a 1 MW (megawatt) PEM (proton exchange membrane) electrolyzer that produces up to 425 kg (kilograms) per day of green hydrogen – to the Korean Gas Safety (KGS) Corporation Standard AH271 for Facility/Technical/Inspection Code for Manufacture of Water Electrolysis Hydrogen Generator.

As part of the certification process, KGS approved Plug’s Rochester Gigafactory for electrolyzer stack production and Plug partner Alpha ECC’s manufacturing facility in Vietnam for system production and assembly.

Andy Marsh, Plug CEO, said:

“As the first company to receive this certification and over five decades of operational expertise backing our PEM stack technology, we are in a unique position as the first mover for PEM electrolyzers in the Korean market.”

SK Plug HyVerse is nearing the completion of a project on Jeju Island, Korea, to support hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks. Additionally, the SK Plug HyVerse is expanding its efforts to build over 25 hydrogen fueling stations across South Korea and has developed a hydrogen-powered bus using Plug’s ProGen module that will reach mass production by year’s-end.