Green hydrogen in Malaysia
SARAWAK’S status as a large producer of renewable energy (RE) is gaining attention. Hydropower is RE and it owes a big thanks to the building of the Bakun hydroelectric plant that began in the 1990s and was commissioned in 2011.
Notwithstanding the environmental and social issues it faced during its construction, the Bakun hydroelectric power plant ironically today puts the state of Sarawak on the green energy map.
The Bakun project contributes 2,400MW of the state’s total 3,452MW of installed hydroelectric capacity.
Another biggie in the form of the Baleh hydroelectric project will commission in 2025 to produce 1,285MW of electricity.
This makes Sarawak ideal for the production of green hydrogen. Hydrogen energy is coming into play in a big way, considering its high energy efficiency, overwhelming environmental and social benefits, as well as economic competitiveness. And green hydrogen is the holy grail.
However, producing green hydrogen is not easy, as the power needed to produce the hydrogen needs to come from an entirely renewable source.
Most of the hydrogen energy produced today is considered gray hydrogen, which is produced using natural gas. And this is where Sarawak comes into play.
A number of foreign companies are rushing to Sarawak to ink deals to produce green hydrogen.
For example, South Korea’s Samsung Engineering, Posco and Lotte Chemical plus SEDC Energy – a Sarawak Economic Development Corp or SEDC subsidiary – have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a green hydrogen project.
So too has Japan’s Eneos Corp and Sumitomo Corp.
Sarawak itself has for some time focused on hydrogen. In 2018, Sarawak Energy Bhd successfully commissioned South-east Asia’s first integrated hydrogen production plant with a 130kg per day production capacity and refuelling station to cater up to five buses and 10 cars per day.
And the Sarawak H2biscus green hydrogen/ammonia project will be located in Bintulu, which is already home to the Petronas LNG Complex and Shell’s gas-to-liquids facility.
The H2biscus Project is looking to convert hydropower and natural gas to green hydrogen/methanol and blue hydrogen, and for the conversion of hydrogen to ammonia, aiming to supply hydrogen and ammonia to South Korea and Sarawak.