据3月24日The Hydrogen Economy报道，2020年，沙特阿拉伯的国家石油公司沙特阿美(Saudi Aramco)宣布将启动美国以外最大的页岩气开发项目，这一消息在天然气市场引发了巨大冲击。沙特阿美表示，计划在未来几年斥资1100亿美元开发Jafurah天然气田，该气田估计蕴藏200万亿立方英尺的天然气。这家国有公司希望在2024年从Jafurah启动天然气生产，到2036年达到22亿立方英尺/天的天然气销售，并包含每天4.25亿立方英尺的乙烷产量。
但是，沙特阿美现在宣布，不再将这些天然气以液化天然气(LNG)的形式出口，而是将其用于制造更清洁的燃料——蓝氢。
在周一的公司财报电话会议上，沙特阿美首席执行官告诉投资者，沙特阿美转而发展氢气。纳赛尔表示，沙特目前的计划是生产足够的天然气供国内使用，以停止发电厂燃烧石油，并将剩余的天然气转化为氢气。蓝氢由天然气通过蒸汽甲烷重整(SMR)或自热蒸汽重整(ATR)制成，产生的二氧化碳被捕获并储存起来。由于温室气体被捕获，从而减轻了对地球环境的影响。
去年，沙特阿美从沙特阿拉伯向日本出口了世界上第一批蓝氨。值得一提的是，日本是一个多山的地形，该国极端的地震活动使其不适合发展可持续的可再生能源。当前，日本正在寻找可靠的氢燃料供应商，沙特阿拉伯和澳大利亚在其候选名单上。
德国表示，它需要“大量”绿氢，并希望沙特阿拉伯成为其供应商。去年，德国内阁承诺投资90亿欧元(约合102亿美元)开发氢技术，以实现经济脱碳和减少二氧化碳排放。德国计划到2030年建立5000兆瓦的电解产能，到2040年再建立5000兆瓦的电解产能，以生产燃料氢。但很明显，德国已经意识到，它无法独自完成这个目标。
对德国来说，幸运的是，沙特阿拉伯正在开发世界上最大的绿氢工厂。
沙特阿拉伯是可再生能源发电的最佳场所，拥有骄阳当空的广袤土地和持续不断的红海微风。然而，这家石油巨头直到现在都没能好好利用这些能源。
沙特政府正在建设一座造价50亿美元的绿氢工厂Helios，该工厂将于2025年投入使用，为计划中的超级城市Neom提供能源。这个氢气工厂将利用太阳能和风能产生4吉瓦的清洁能源来生产氢气。
值得一提的是，该工厂可能很快就能生产出比石油更便宜的氢气。
彭博新能源财经(BNEF)估计，到2030年，Helios的成本可能达到每公斤1.5美元，远低于绿氢每公斤5美元的平均成本，甚至低于从天然气裂解中获得的灰氢的成本。沙特阿拉伯拥有热烈的阳光、风能和大片未使用的土地，在绿色氢能源产业中享有巨大的竞争优势。
王佳晶 摘译自 The Hydrogen Economy
原文如下：
Saudi Arabia Skips LNG, Bets Big On Hydrogen
Last year, Saudi Arabia’s national oil company Saudi Aramco sent shockwaves through the natural gas markets after it announced that it was kicking off the biggest shale gas development outside of the United States. Saudi Aramco said it plans to spend $110 billion over the next couple of years to develop the Jafurah gas field, which is estimated to hold 200 trillion cubic feet of gas. The state-owned company hopes to start natural gas production from Jafurah in 2024 and reach 2.2 Bcf/d of sales gas by 2036 with an associated 425 million cubic feet per day of ethane.
And Aramco has now announced that instead of chilling that gas and exporting it as LNG, it will instead use it to make much cleaner fuel: Blue hydrogen.
During the company’s earnings call on Monday, Saudi Aramco CEO told investors that Aramco plans to develop its LNG sector in favor of hydrogen. Nasser said that the kingdom’s immediate plan is to produce enough natural gas for domestic use to stop burning oil in its power plants and convert the remainder into hydrogen. Blue hydrogen is made from natural gas either by Steam Methane Reforming (SMR) or Auto Thermal Reforming (ATR) with the CO2 generated captured and then stored. As the greenhouse gasses are captured, this mitigates the environmental impacts on the planet.
Last year, Aramco made the world’s first blue ammonia shipment--from Saudi Arabia to Japan. Japan—a country whose mountainous terrain and extreme seismic activity render it unsuitable for the development of sustainable renewable energy—is looking for dependable suppliers of hydrogen fuel with Saudi Arabia and Australia on its shortlist.
Germany has also said it needs “enormous” volumes of green hydrogen, and it hopes Saudi Arabia will be a supplier. Last year, Germany’s cabinet committed to investing €9B (about $10.2B) in hydrogen technology in a bid to decarbonize the economy and cut CO2 emissions. The government has proposed to build an electrolysis capacity of 5,000MW by 2030 and another 5,000MW by 2040 over the following decade to produce fuel hydrogen. But apparently, the European giant has realized it cannot do this alone.
Luckily for Germany, Saudi Arabia is now developing the biggest green hydrogen plant in the world.
$5B Green Hydrogen
With its sun-scorched expanses and steady Red Sea breezes, Saudi Arabia is prime real estate for renewable energy generation. The oil giant has, however, failed to put all that energy into good use--until now.
The Saudi government is building a $5 billion green hydrogen plant that will power the planned megacity of Neom when it opens in 2025. Dubbed Helios Green Fuels, the hydrogen plant will use solar and wind energy to generate 4GW of clean energy that will be used to produce hydrogen.
But here’s the main kicker: Helios could soon produce hydrogen that’s cheaper than oil.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) estimates that Helios’ costs could reach $1.50 per kilogram by 2030, way cheaper than the average cost of green hydrogen at $5 per kilogram and even cheaper than gray hydrogen made from cracking natural gas. Saudi Arabia enjoys serious competitive advantage in the green hydrogen business thanks to its perpetual sunshine, wind, and vast tracts of unused land.
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