Chariot to supply Rotterdam's port with green hydrogen

Chariot Limited, an energy transition-focused producer active in African markets, said April 6 it had entered into a memorandum of understanding to supply green hydrogen from Mauritania to Port of Rotterdam International.

The MoU is expected to lay the basis for new green hydrogen and ammonia supply chains that serve customers in the Netherlands and around Northwest Europe.

Chariot's Project Nour green hydrogen development in Mauritania is expected to produce up to 10,000 MW of fuel, across both onshore and offshore acreage, under an MoU signed with the government in September 2021.

Chariot and Port of Rotterdam plan to work closely together to identify potential offtakers for the renewable gas quantities, and then to sign contracts for specific offtake volumes.  Green hydrogen is obtained from water molecules using electrolysers powered by renewables.

Existing import facilities like LNG plants may be repurposed to also process green hydrogen imports. This is especially the case in key northern European markets like the Netherlands and Germany, where much of the capacity from domestic renewable plants is tied up to the phasing out of thermal power plants, due to climate change objectives.

According to DNV, green hydrogen use in Europe is expected to remain modest in 2030, although 25% higher than expected before the Ukraine war.  It says the continent has "limited capacity for producing sufficient renewable electricity to simultaneously phase out fossil fuels from the power mix and produce meaningful amounts of green hydrogen."