Marc Grünewald, vice president of MAN Energy Solutions, presented their Power-to-X (PtX) plants at the Africa Energy Forum, (AEF) to help meet the worldwide demand for hydrogen
MAN Energy Solutions is committed to building a carbon neutral world through sustainable renewable energy and effective energy storage. The company has set a 2050 target to limit global warming to two degrees above pre-industrialisation levels to keep the impact of climate change to a minimum. This is a difficult task, as the IEA has calculated that in Africa alone the 2015-2040 period will see a 160% increase in electrical demand, and an 8% growth in primary energy demand. To achieve their target, MAN Energy Solutions has calculated that the maximum amount of CO2 produced by 2050 must be limited to 600 bn tons of CO2, far below the potential 2,800 bn tons of CO2 that would be produced if all known fossil resources today were burned.
While presenting at AEF on the 27 October, Grünewald outlined MAN Energy Solution’s strategy to sustainably create carbon neutral fuels from renewable energy resources such as solar and wind. In MAN Energy Solution’s Power-to-X (PtX) plants, renewable energy, aside from feeding into the local grid, will power electrolysers converting H2O into hydrogen. If the local industry is capable of doing so, this gas can be used immediately locally, but there needs to be more development of engines able to use this fuel. In the meantime, hydrogen gas can be converted into other synthetic liquid fuels such as kerosene, methanol, ammonia which can be transported, stored, and then used in existing combustion engines for mobility, electricity and heat.
Due to the development of this method, the worldwide demand for hydrogen could increase 10-fold by 2050 and MAN Energy Solutions have already developed industry ready plants to cope with this. One of their 50 MW power-to-gas plants can produce enough synthetic natural gas (SNG) to provide carbon neutral fuel for 19,800 cars, 470 buses or two maritime car carriers performing two round trips a year. Grünewald stressed that, of course, different size plants could be constructed to meet the demands of each individual project.
Africa, due to its high potential wind and solar energy, holds the highest potential for the production of green fuels and has been identified as a key continent by MAN Energy Solutions. European countries are searching for international partners to import hydrogen and SNG to meet their growing demand for green energy in the forthcoming decades. MAN Energy Solutions have the technology and are now searching for suitable regions in Africa where they can set up their PtX plants. These projects would be a “win-win”, said Grünewald, providing European countries with green energy but “that has to have an impact on the regional development as well.”
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