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Rabat – Morocco’s Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) has signed an agreement with the Dutch company Proton Ventures to construct the Green Ammonia Pilot at the OCP Group chemical complex in Jorf Lasfar.
The agreement was signed in the presence of representatives from Morocco’s Solar Energy and New Energies Research Institute (IRESEN) and Fred Duijn, the charge d’affaires of the Dutch Embassy in Rabat.
The agreement, which concerns the turnkey construction of the first pilot of the “Green H2A,” is part of a contract signed between UM6P, the OCP Group, and the IRESEN in November 2021.
“Green H2A” is a joint platform dedicated to research and development as well as innovation in the Green Hydrogen sector and its applications (Power-to-X).
The technological platform will produce green ammonia with a capacity of four tonnes per day based on the Haber-Bosch process, UM6P said in a press release.
As the first hub of its kind in Africa, the platform seeks to play a major role in driving the production of green hydrogen on the continent.
“For the production of Green Hydrogen, the pre-industrial pilot is equipped with two PEM & Alkaline electrolysers with a capacity of 2 megawatt each,” added the UM6P statement.
The platform will also be equipped with an emulator that can simulate various electrical load profiles, including the hybridization of photovoltaic (PV) and wind energy, in various geographical sites in Morocco and beyond.
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With UM6P vowing to continue its commitment to boosting research in green hydrogen in Morocco, the university’s Director of Innovate for Industry Mohammed Bousseta noted that the pilot “will be dedicated to research, training, and production.”
Bousseta stressed that “[the pilot] will constitute a living laboratory available to UM6P researchers, doctoral students and professors for research and education in the fields of hydrogen and green ammonia.”
For UM6P’s industrial partners at OCP, the platform will serve for training and studies for a large industrial unit of Green Ammonia.
The green ammonia plant is expected to “bring the energy transition to reality,” said Proton Ventures’s CEO Paul Baan, expressing optimism about working alongside the UM6P, OCP, and IRESEN as well as other partners.
Samir Rachidi, Scientific Director and Acting General Manager of IRESEN, perceives the innovative project as a gateway to other larger-scale projects worldwide, as it will also contribute to the sharing expertise and training of human capital, among others.
Established in Jorf Lasfar, the innovative unit will enable the preparation of larger industrial projects by leveraging the knowledge and know-how developed during the exploitation phase, which will begin in the first quarter of 2024.
