Hydrogen City & green ammonia from the Port of Corpus Christi

Green Hydrogen International will lead development of the world’s largest green hydrogen production & storage hub in Duval County, Texas. 60 GW of solar & wind energy generation will power the production of 2.5 million tonnes of green hydrogen per year via electrolysis. Storage caverns will be created underground in the nearby Piedras Pintas Salt Dome (fifty caverns totaling 6TWh energy storage), and the facility will buy & sell renewable energy to Texas’ electricity grid (ERCOT).

Developers are targeting the first operational phase in 2026, amounting to 2 GW of green hydrogen production, and two underground salt caverns for storage. Australian-based renewable developer Energy Estate is assisting with the development of Hydrogen City.

Hydrogen City is a project perfectly positioned near low-cost renewable resources, plenty of available land, salt domes, and proximity to the large energy port of Corpus Christi. It will be a world cost leader and position GHI to take advantage of the growing demand for green hydrogen.

GHI Board Member Andy Steinhubl in the official press release, 3 March 2022

Green ammonia for international export

GHI are already negotiating multiple end uses for their green hydrogen product, including as a feedstock for aviation fuel, for rocket fuel production in Texas and for use as a blended fuel at gas power plants. Hydrogen will also be transported by pipeline to the Port of Corpus Christi and converted to ammonia for export. GHI is targeting emerging green ammonia export markets, noting METI’s target of 30 million tonnes per year of imports to Japan by 2050. Green ammonia for fertiliser is also a potential end-use, given volatile gas prices and subsequent increased costs for farmers.

Japanese and Korean companies are interesting partners for us in this project given their countries desire to shift to green ammonia.

GHI founder and CEO Brian Maxwell, Hydrogen City project webpage

There is no indication as yet whether GHI’s two other public projects – Project Olympus (Canada) and Energy City (Texas) – feature green ammonia.

Gulf Coast green fuels hub

In early February Apex Clean Energy, Ares Management, EPIC Midstream, and Port of Corpus Christi Authority signed an MoU to develop a green fuels hub at Corpus Christi. Details are limited, but the partners intend to begin operations within a few years, and scale-up by the end of this decade, with green fuel production (hydrogen & derivatives) at “GW scale”. Apex has been steadily building its project portfolio in the US: in July 2021 they and Plug Power announced a long-term contract had been secured for wind energy to power a 345 MW hydrogen production plant, also in Texas.