In another sign that blue hydrogen could be on the cusp of bigger things, Japan’s Marubeni has “signed a long-term offtake agreement for approximately 250,000 tonnes of low-carbon ammonia per year from ExxonMobil’s facility in Baytown, Texas”.

The produced-from-natural-gas hydrogen that feeds into this ammonia process will – it is claimed – be “virtually carbon-free”, having had “approximately 98% of CO2 removed” during its production. The ammonia will find its way to the Kobe Power Plant, owned by Kobe Steel, which “aims to co-fire low-carbon ammonia with existing fuel… by Japan’s fiscal year 2030”.

In total, The Baytown plant’s capacity will be “more than 1 million tons of low-carbon ammonia per year”, so this agreement doesn’t cover its entire output. Still, it should help towards a “final investment decision [which] is expected in 2025”.

As well as this specific offtake agreement, Marubeni will also buy equity in ExxonMobil’s plant and the two will “collaborate beyond this supply chain and strive towards the launch of a global market for low-carbon ammonia”.

The market picture in green hydrogen is rather mixed these days, with contrasting news items this week exemplifying this.

In Sweden, “Stegra will soon receive 740 MW of Thyssenkrupp Nucera electrolysers as part of its €6.5 bn [USD7.4 bn] green steel mill in Boden”, a key milestone in that plant being able “to begin operations in 2026”.

This electrolyser capacity will be built from “37 alkaline electrolysis modules, each rated at 20 MW”. Each module comes on a skid measuring “40 metres in length and 5 metres in width”, having been assembled “at Thyssenkrupp Nucera’s yard in Tarragona, Spain”. The space required for mounting the units consists of “a 70 hectare plot” and “some 3,000 staff, contractors and consultants will converge daily to weave together the hydrogen train and the water‑gas separation units”.

So, if all goes to plan, this will be one of the earliest examples both of a truly large-scale green hydrogen plant, and of a new wave of hydrogen-DRI steel plants.

Also in the latter business is Spanish steelmaker Hydnum Steel, which “will supply Ireland-based building materials company Kingspan Group with low-emission flat steel”.

This will come from Hydnum’s Puertollano plant, which “is designed to use fossil-free energy throughout the manufacturing process and will gradually incorporate green hydrogen” too. With construction “expected to begin by the end of 2025”, it reckons it will be “the first ‘green’ steel mill on the Iberian Peninsula”. From it, Hydnum “aims to produce 1.5 million tonnes/year of flat steel, supplying key sectors such as automotive, construction and renewable energy”.

In the UK, Uniper is planning “to supply hydrogen to Phillips 66’s Humber refinery”, and its 120MW Humber H2ub project has already been “shortlisted by the UK government for funding through its second hydrogen allocation round (HAR2)”.

If that shortlisting turns into a 15-year ‘contracts-for-difference’ subsidy and an eventual project, then amongst the most delighted will be ITM Power, which has been selected to supply “six of its 20MW Poseidon process modules”. These are its “standardised skid-mounted electrolyser units, based on its 2MW stacks.”