Climate Action: Prospects of Green Hydrogen in Africa

Abstract

Africa is rich with an abundance of renewable energy sources that can help meeting the continent’s demand for electricity to promote economic growth and meet global targets for CO2 reduction. Green Hydrogen is considered one of the most promising technologies for energy generation, transportation, and storage. In this paper, the prospects of green hydrogen production potential in Africa are investigated along with its usage for future implementation. Moreover, an overview of the benefits of shifting to green Hydrogen technology is presented. The current African infrastructure and policies are tested against future targets and goals. Furthermore, the study embraces a detailed theoretical, environmental, technological, and economic assessment putting the local energy demands into consideration

Full text

Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Energy Reports
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/egyr
Review article
Climate action: Prospects of green hydrogen in Africa
Nour AbouSeada, Tarek M. Hatem ∗
Centre for Simulation Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing, the British University in Egypt (BUE), El Sherouk City, Cairo, 11837, Egypt
Faculty of Energy and Environmental Engineering, the British University in Egypt (BUE), El-Sherouk City, Cairo 11837, Egypt
article info
Article history:
Received 13 November 2021
Received in revised form 13 February 2022
Accepted 20 February 2022
Available online xxxx
Keywords:
Green
Hydrogen
Electrolysis
Power to X
Renewable energies
Policy
Hydrogen production
abstract
Africa is rich with an abundance of renewable energy sources that can help meeting the continent’s
demand for electricity to promote economic growth and meet global targets for CO2 reduction. Green
Hydrogen is considered one of the most promising technologies for energy generation, transportation,
and storage. In this paper, the prospects of green hydrogen production potential in Africa are investi-
gated along with its usage for future implementation. Moreover, an overview of the benefits of shifting
to green Hydrogen technology is presented. The current African infrastructure and policies are tested
against future targets and goals. Furthermore, the study embraces a detailed theoretical, environmental,
technological, and economic assessment putting the local energy demands into consideration.
©2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3874
2. Africa for change ‘‘current infrastructure’’ .................................................................................................................................................................. 3875
2.1. The performance of green hydrogen in different countries in the world and different countries of africa.......................................... 3876
2.2. Africa’s hydrogen current initiatives & projects ............................................................................................................................................ 3876
2.2.1. South africa ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 3876
2.2.2. Egypt.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3878
2.2.3. Morocco............................................................................................................................................................................................... 3878
2.2.4. Nigeria ................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3878
2.2.5. Uganda................................................................................................................................................................................................. 3878
2.2.6. Other projects ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 3878
2.3. Hydrogen current production methods .......................................................................................................................................................... 3880
2.4. Hydrogen current storage & transport infrastructure in africa.................................................................................................................... 3881
3. Benefits of implementing Green hydrogen technology in africa.............................................................................................................................. 3881
3.1. Benefits in decarbonizing the current industrial use .................................................................................................................................... 3882
3.1.1. Benefits in the chemical production sector .................................................................................................................................... 3882
3.1.2. Benefits in the oil refining sector .................................................................................................................................................... 3883
3.1.3. Benefits in iron and steel production .............................................................................................................................................. 3883
3.2. Benefits in the building & power & storage &transportation sector........................................................................................................... 3884
4. Polices for implementing green hydrogen in africa................................................................................................................................................... 3884
4.1. African Hydrogen Partnership (AHP)............................................................................................................................................................... 3884
4.2. ‘‘Agenda 2063’’ ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3884
4.3. Europe’s hydrogen ambitions for africa ‘‘european hydrogen strategy’’..................................................................................................... 3885
5. Analysis of hydrogen production routes ..................................................................................................................................................................... 3885
5.1. The route of the future ‘‘electrolysis’’ ............................................................................................................................................................. 3885
5.2. The three main technologies of electrolysis................................................................................................................................................... 3885
5.3. Principal properties of each technology ......................................................................................................................................................... 3886
∗Corresponding author at: Centre for Simulation Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing, the British University in Egypt (BUE), El Sherouk
City, Cairo, 11837, Egypt.
E-mail address: tarek.hatem@bue.edu.eg (T.M. Hatem).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2022.02.225
2352-4847/©2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
5.4. Cost dynamics .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3886
5.5. Production costs of different hydrogen production routes .......................................................................................................................... 3886
5.6. Carbon intensity of production routes ............................................................................................................................................................ 3887
6. Conclusion ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3887
Declaration of competing interest................................................................................................................................................................................ 3888
Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3888
References ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3888
Further reading ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... 3890
1. Introduction
Climate change is one of the biggest challenges in the 21st
century. According to the world’s climate scientists, the energy-
related CO2emissions are accounting around 76% of global green-
house gas emissions that causes climate changes which threaten
Earth’s feasibility for humans (Anon,2022c). The unceasing en-
ergy demand in the world market and the global warming prob-
lem coupled with the increase in energy price have subsequently
drawn attention to the necessity of renewable energy (RE) re-
sources. According to Paris agreement, global CO2emissions must
be cut by 25% in 2030 to limit the global warming to below 2 ◦C
and to reach the net zero emission by 2070. Yet, it is preferred to
limit the global warming to below 1.5 ◦C (Bhagwat and Olczak,
2020). Accordingly, global CO2emissions must be cut by 45% in
2030, and to reach the net zero emission by 2050 globally in
order to avoid catastrophic climate impacts (Bhagwat and Olczak,
2020). Hence, a rapid change must take place in reducing the
steady stream of CO2emissions and greenhouse gases in the
energy sector of ship, air traffic, transportation, buildings, and
manufacturing industries by an energy transition from using the
fossil fuels to renewable energy sources (Gielen et al.,2019b).
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) (Deutsche
Umwelthilfe (DUH),2020), the decarburization of these sectors
and global power generation is essential as they account around
95% global CO2emissions that were proved to account more than
33 billion tonnes in 2018 (Anon,2022c). The main challenges for
climate policy that there must be clear political priorities which:
(1) decrease energy demand; (2) boost the shift to renewable
energy; and (3) increase the energy efficiency through all divi-
sions leading to green mobility transition (Deutsche Umwelthilfe
(DUH),2020)
Nowadays, the electricity depends mainly on fossil fuels or
nuclear power plants fueled by natural gas or coal; however, the
future is for clean electricity. The world needs a lasting solution,
which is known as ‘‘sector coupling’’, to enable the transfer of
the renewable energy to energy-consuming sectors in the global
economy, and to address the storage and transport of energy
generated from renewable sources (Van Nuffel et al.,2018). The
problem here is that renewable resources is not available in
constant quantity. There are places with solar power abundance
or surplus capacity, while others with low sunlight or low re-
newable sources (Lehmann et al.,2018). The question is ‘‘How
can we balance this disparity? The only path for accelerating the
decarburization process is through shifting the fossil fuels into
other heavy industries, and coupling excess green electricity from
renewable energy sources to use it in different energy sectors
‘‘Power to X’’ which is mainly abbreviated as ‘‘PtX’’ (Deutsche
Umwelthilfe (DUH),2020). The X stands for a fuel-type needed.
For instance, Power-to-Hydrogen ‘‘PtH2 ‘‘ via Electrolysis, Power-
to-Gas ‘‘PtG’’ (e.g., gaseous e-fuels, Pure H2, or mixed with Natural
gas), Power-to-Liquids ‘‘PtL’’(liquid synthetic e-fuels), Power-to-
Chemicals ‘‘PtC’’ (i.e., compounds used as industrial feedstocks),
Power-to-Heat ‘‘PtH’’ (i.e., by means of resistance heating or heat
pumps), Power-to-Power ‘‘PtP’’ (i.e., by means of PtG or PtL out-
puts to generate electricity) (Siemens,2019). There are different
techniques for storing energy as follows: (1) direct storage for
higher conversion efficiency by avoiding the extent of energy
lost when transforming one form of energy into another for
instance in batteries; and (2) flywheels or capacitors which will
be applicable in private houses, cars, trains, and buses (Nazir
et al.,2020). However, this has some drawbacks in terms of
scalability and duration. Conversely the usage of indirect power-
to-x technologies will attain higher energy losses in conversion
but it is promising and feasible for aviation, larger vehicles and
industrial processes (Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH),2020).
In many countries, the implementation of green hydrogen to
the path for compacting climate change and to be the key of
decarburization is gradually increasing (I. Energy Agency,2019).
Based on IEA’s Hydrogen Projects Database, green hydrogen
demonstration projects globally accounts around 320 projects
with a weekly basis increase. Africa has a great potential to
join a long list of countries, such as the European Union, Japan,
Spain, Australia, Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Chile, and
Norway, which is going to simulate the Hydrogen production (I.
Energy Agency,2019). The population of Africa is increasing to
almost 1.3 billion, which has been growing over the last 10 years
with annually percentage of 2.5% (Wall,1960). As a result of the
increase in population, a direct demand for energy will be needed
to match the growth as the country is defined to reduce the
carbon footprint.
Africa is a well suitable place for the production of green
hydrogen since it is rich with abundant energy sources which
have high RE potential (Is and Hydrogen,2021). These sources
consist of various rising wind, solar projects, and miscellaneous
wealth of natural resources. Hence, Africa significantly can pro-
duce electricity with a low cost as it can produce large amounts
of extremely cost-efficient renewable energy which can be then
exported to Europe due to surplus. Nevertheless, it is not fully
harnessed as there is disparity between electricity generation and
production in African countries (Mas’ud et al.,2015). According
to the International Energy Agency (IEA) information, comparing
Africa’s modern energy consumption with other regions, for in-
stance Europe, Middle East, Latin America and North America,
evidently indicates that Africa has one of the lowest per capita
consumption rate of energy on the grounds that it depend mainly
on traditional biomass and hydropower energy (Mas’ud et al.,
2015;Anon,2021g).
Many countries started applying the hydrogen strategies and
roadmaps in order to capitalize the global market place (Pa-
tel,2020). Some African governments, like South Africa, Egypt
and Morocco, started tracking more environmental policies as
green Hydrogen will help achieving the national energy and
decarburization goals (Patel,2020). Recently, the United Nations’
Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 27) denotes an
opportunity for African countries to deliver their main message
and start taking an action toward achieving zero emissions tar-
gets (UNFCCC,2022;Anon,2022b). Lately in Egypt, Green hydro-
gen has been introduced in Egypt’s 2035 Energy Strategy, The
Egyptian Ministry of Electricity announced the year 2022 as to
be ‘‘The Year of Green Hydrogen’’, which is deliberated as the
fuel of the future, it was pointed out in Egypt that contracts
3874

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
have been signed to implement five new plants to produce green
hydrogen as pilot projects (Anon,2022d). While in South Africa
[SA], particularly, it has ideal weather conditions by means of it
is rich of for solar and wind power generation. Besides, SA have
access to platinum resources and some technological capabilities
regarding the Fischer–Tropsch (FT) process which will put the
country to a whole new level to be a main provider into the global
hydrogen market (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
Though, Hydrogen is the simplest and plentiful element in
the universe. Hydrogen can be easily integrated into the world’s
energy-delivery infrastructure than other energy storage tech-
nologies as it has the highest specific energy content among
all conventional fuels (I. Energy Agency,2019). Since the 19th
century till now, Hydrogen is used as a fuel source in early aero-
nautics and in small scale lightings because of its characteristics
as a potent and light energy carrier (I. Energy Agency,2019). In
the coming decades, Hydrogen produced using renewable energy
sources will be the key of change as it will be a promising
alternative energy storage option on the ground of its high energy
density, storability, and portability (Wall,1960). Currently, the
production of hydrogen is around 120 million tonnes each year,
in which the production of pure hydrogen is two-thirds while
its production with mixture of other gases is one-third, which
is equivalent to 14.4 exa-joules (EJ) (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) statistics, 95%
of hydrogen production is obtained from coal and gas, while 5%
is obtained as a by-product from chlorine production through
electrolysis (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
Additionally, maintaining a clean hydrogen economy would
not only decrease exposure to geopolitical and oil price insta-
bility, but also decrease the cost of energy for countries which
depend on diesel (Is and Hydrogen,2021). In order to over-
come weakness and disparity in some areas and to provide them
with permanent energy supply, excess renewable energy will be
stored to green hydrogen’s capacity (Belward et al.,2011). The
energy will be used in producing electricity that will replace coal-
based electricity. Furthermore, the development of the hydrogen
economy will support Africa’s challenges. It can play a role in
providing more employment to vulnerable communities and in-
dividuals in order to boost the economic growth and will protect
Africa from future climate crisis events (Is and Hydrogen,2021;
Patel,2020).
Majority of hydrogen production is used on-site in industry,
in which two thirds of the hydrogen use accounts for the oil
refining, chemical processes, and as a feedstock for ammonia pro-
duction (Verkehrswende,2021). Pure hydrogen has challenges to
act as energy carrier for transportation due to its low volumetric
energy density; however, it is combined with CO2through metha-
nation to produce e-fuels such as methane (CH4) or methanol
(CH3OH) (Verkehrswende,2021). In addition to that, the iron and
steel industry consist of high hydrogen share (I. Energy Agency,
2019). Nevertheless, due to the rapid need for hydrogen and
hydrogen-based e-fuels that will replace fossils, this estimation
will be increased 10 times or more before 2050 (Verkehrswende,
2021).
The industrial production of hydrogen depend mainly on the
steam reforming of fossil natural gas feedstock, which is around
75% of global hydrogen supply (Anon,2022b,d). It results in emit-
ting greenhouse gas emissions, in which around 9 kgs of CO2e are
produced per each kg of hydrogen. While the production from the
coal gasification which is around 23% of global hydrogen supply,
it results in emitting greenhouse gas emissions around 19 kg
CO2e per each kg of hydrogen which is called gray hydrogen.
Another method is producing the blue hydrogen, which is fossil
hydrogen, with carbon capture and storage (CCS), this reduce the
CO2emissions to 1.5–4 kg CO2e released to the atmosphere
per each kg of hydrogen (Anon,2022d;Belward et al.,2011).
Furthermore, H2can be produced from NG by high-temperature
pyrolysis or by thermal cracking of methane (methane pyrolysis).
This method produces turquoise hydrogen, and estimated to emit
about 4 kg CO2 e per each kg of hydrogen (Anon,2022d;Belward
et al.,2011).
This review focuses on investigating power to hydrogen tech-
nology. In other words, study the potential and benefits of pro-
ducing green hydrogen in Africa, it was discussed:
•The African problems and needs for the execution of green
hydrogen in Africa, discussing Africa’s current infrastructure,
evaluating the renewable sources availability, and investi-
gating the African energy demands utilization and the future
proposed scenario (Section 2).
•The performance of green hydrogen in different countries
and Africa’s current initiative projects is explained. (Sec-
tion 2).
•The benefits of implementing green hydrogen technology in
Africa presenting the use and application of green hydrogen
in different sectors. (Section 3).
•Polices and factors driving the use of green hydrogen in
Africa. (Section 4).
•Analysis of different hydrogen production routes, including
Costs & Carbon intensity. (Section 5).
2. Africa for change ‘‘current infrastructure’’
Africa’s economic growth has been increasing rapidly resulting
in an increase in the demand of energy. The policy maker’s top
of the agenda and challenge is to enable the economic growth, to
achieve the target of energy needs, and to assess energy for those
lacking it (Verkehrswende,2021;Anon,2021c). Africa is consid-
ered the lowest per capita in energy consumption since Africa’s
population accounts about 16% from the world’s total population;
it consumes only 3.3% of global primary energy, however the
total primary energy supply (TPES) has faced a noticeable increase
3% annually; however, the current production is inadequate in
meeting Africa’s demand as around 600 million people in Africa
have no accesses to electricity (Sugawara and Nikaido,2014).
Africa accounts 7.6% of world’s proven oil reserves on the ground
that it generates 9.1% from the total global oil production, and
consumes about 4.2% of the total global oil consumption while
it accounts 7.5% of world’s proven natural gas reserves as it
produces 6% from the total global natural gas production, and
consumes about 3.9% of the total global natural gas consumption
and south Africa is considered the seventh largest coal producer
globally (Africa Energy Outlook 2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019). Fig. 1
describes different regions facing different challenges in Africa. It
was indicated that about half of the people on West Africa, 60% of
South Africa, 2% of North Africa, and most of Eastern and middle
Africa lack the access to electricity. Besides, the Gross Domestic
Product (GDP) per capita is the highest in North Africa (Sugawara
and Nikaido,2014).
Africa’s current energy needs are mainly met by means of a
mix of biomass and fossil fuels as half of Africa’s total primary
energy supply, as shown in Fig. 2, oil, coal, natural gas, hydro
accounts 23%, 14%, 16%, and 1% respectively of the total primary
energy supply in Africa (Wall,1960). Renewable energy is a
sustainable route that is used alternatively to the fossil fuels to
help in reducing Africa’s economic vulnerability to the adjustable
and rising prices of imported fuels. Gradually, the global and
local communities will shift the economy to be totally/ dependent
on renewable source (Wall,1960;IRENA,2019). Africa includes
diverse renewable energy resources that are vast in quantity but
unevenly distributed. It has almost abundant hydro equal to 350
3875

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 1. Africa energy landscape.
Fig. 2. Energy demand ’percentage (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
Gigawatt (GW), unlimited solar potential equal to 10 terawatt
(TW) geothermal energy sources equal to 15 GW, and wind equal
to 110 GW (IRENA,2019).
The highest energy demand in Africa is related to the home
sector for cooling, heating and home appliances, which is mainly
about 70%, i.e. more than 60 TWh, however, the industrial sector
accounts around 40 TWh, in which 90% of the demand of the
industrial sector is from it is lighter industries (Wall,1960;IRENA,
2019). According to the IEA’s statistics in 2018, South Africa had
40% of the African electricity demand from industry, and the
highest in transport sector use of electricity across Africa where
parts of the rail network are electrified (Africa Energy Outlook
2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019). The generation of electricity has
been increasing since 2010 from 670 TWh to reach 870 TWh in
2018. The share of electricity generation by fuel source in Africa
accounts 40% natural gas, 30% coal, 16% Hydro power, and 9%
of the oil but there are huge regional differences; for instance,
South Africa depend mainly on coal, while North Africa depends
on natural gas (Edkins et al.,2010) (see Fig. 3).
As shown in Fig. 4 demonstrating the case of South Africa, 89%
of the primary energy is focused on main three sectors as follows:
36% for the industrial sector, 27% for the residential sector, and
26%, for the transportation sector (Gielen et al.,2019a). Specifi-
cally, in the industrial sector coming in the first place, iron and
steel industries consume about 203 677 Tera joule (TJ), followed
by the mining and quarrying industry that consumes 184 743 (TJ),
then the chemical and petrochemical industries which consume
139 873 (TJ) to drive the industry (Gielen et al.,2019a).
The future scenario in Africa, based on the stated policies, is
that the total primary energy will increase 2% annually in the pe-
riod between 2018 and 2040 (IRENA,2019;Africa Energy Outlook
2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019). Nevertheless, the composition of
energy consumption is progressively shifting from the utilization
of biomass to more effective energy sources. The energy poli-
cies choices should be effective for: (1) reaching the continent’s
growth ambitions, which comprises those on the Agenda 2063;
and (2) achieving the development and economic goals that aims
to scale up the industrial capacity to build a sustainable energy
system and increase its natural resources (Commission,2021).
The vision of the Agenda 2063 points out that the African
case associates arrangements tor the fabrication of the African
energy sector in a manner that aims to permit higher financial
development to reach sustainability (Edkins et al.,2010;Gielen
et al.,2019a). Moreover, in comparison to the states polices sce-
narios, the African case shows that accomplishing the objectives
of Agenda 2063 does not really need a higher energy intensive
economies on the ground that the utilization of the bio energy in
the African case is significantly decreasing, while there are strong
proficiency upgrades in developing the demand of other sources
of energy (Africa Energy Outlook 2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019).
The demands of the power sector or the electricity are increasing;
however, the demand is mostly met by renewables. Therefore, as
shown in Fig. 5, the overall primary energy demand in 2040 in
the African case will be reduced to 10% less than in the stated
policies scenario (IRENA,2019;Gielen et al.,2019a) (see Tables 1
and 2).
2.1. The performance of green hydrogen in different countries in the
world and different countries of africa
2.2. Africa’s hydrogen current initiatives & projects
Hydrogen production in Africa is not restricted to the local
advantages it offers. Various initiatives have been launched in
order to create a market for trading hydrogen not only for a
domestic use but also globally (Africa Energy Outlook 2019 –
Analysis - IEA,2019).
2.2.1. South africa
An initiative called ‘‘Hydrogen South Africa’’ (HySA), was
launched in South Africa in 2008 aiming to expand and im-
prove hydrogen technology. The objective of this initiative is to
present fuel cells with an intention of expanding clean energy
to far off networks or the remote communities for avoiding
the insufficiency of energy with an end goal for creating an
3876

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 3. Share of electricity generation by fuel source in Africa ‘‘Electricity GWH’’ (Africa Energy Outlook 2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019).
Fig. 4. Energy usage sectors in South Africa (Edkins et al.,2010).
alternative protected, clean energy sources to fossil fuels (Ayo-
dele and Munda,2019). The public authority has categorized the
utilization of fuel cell in SA as a genuine idea on the ground
that SA is rich with extraordinary amount of platinum deposits
found in SA which represents 95% of the world platinum de-
posits (Anon,2022a). Thus, platinum is seen as an asset that
would profit the country financially by building up a platinum
market through utilizing it as a catalyst for fuel cells. Moreover,
it will bring socioeconomic benefits by increasing the wealth and
creating job opportunities (Anon,2022a;Bhagwat and Olczak,
2020). Nowadays, South Africa’s attention is focused on delivering
hydrogen from sustainable resources (green hydrogen) (Ayodele
and Munda,2019;Bhagwat and Olczak,2020). Fuel cells are
considered an environmental friendly solution and a better effi-
cient technology. Hence, the technology of Hydrogen-fuel cell is
expected to have high potential for solving the South African’s
energy gap with an advantage to alleviate the climate change
problems by reducing the emissions and to obtain energy se-
curity (Ayodele and Munda,2019;Bhagwat and Olczak,2020).
This technology is developed under the supervision of the energy
security and global change science niche of the department of
Science and Technology (DST) innovation’s plan (Ayodele and
Munda,2019;Bhagwat and Olczak,2020). HySA take the charge
for developing the innovation and research of Hydrogen-fuel cell
technology. As a result, three proficient centers were established
to study the several hydrogen fuel technologies aiming to reach
more than 25% of the global market of fuel cell by 2020, and to
empower the utilization of the platinum catalyst (Anon,2021j).
As shown in Figure 11, the first center ‘‘HySA Catalyst’’ is respon-
sible for establishing ‘‘HyPlat’’, which is a platinum catalyst that
have a future to be not only commercialized for a locally scale
but also internationally. Additionally, it can be utilized with low-
temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells and can be
used for research purposes. The second center ‘‘HySA Infrastruc-
ture’’ is responsible for establishing a laboratory which includes
state-of-the-art facilities that aims to test and generate many
hydrogen storage materials The third center ‘‘HySA Systems’’ is
basically responsible for creating and confirming by aligning the
output of the two centers (Anon,2021j).
3877

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 5. Total primary energy demand in Africa by scenario, 2018–2040 (Africa Energy Outlook 2019 – Analysis - IEA,2019).
Moreover, according to Enertrag Company, South Africa has
high potential because it is already familiar with the production
of around 8 billion liters annually of synthetic fuels. Hence, the
present infrastructure might be repurposed for green hydrogen
production (Karekezi et al.,2003;Ayodele and Munda,2019). Ad-
ditionally, low-hanging fruits can be utilized for the production of
clean fuel meant for shipping or aviation. Africa captures around
20%–25% of the world market share. For instance, if the ability
of global aviation demand were fulfilled by 10% in south Africa,
around 120 GW of electrolyzers would be settled powered by
wind and solar each of 150 GW (Karekezi et al.,2003;Ayodele
and Munda,2019). As a result, Enertrag has future plan for
South Africa aims to implement 20 fuel cell buses using green
hydrogen (Karekezi et al.,2003;Ayodele and Munda,2019).
2.2.2. Egypt
An agreement for developing the first green hydrogen hub
in Egypt is launched between the Norwegian company ‘‘Scatec’’
for renewable energy, Egypt’s Sovereign Fund (TSFE), and the
company ‘‘ Fertiglobe ’’, the partnership between OCI and Abu
Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), for the development of
50–100 MW electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen that will be
located in Ain Sokhna . Based on this cooperation, Scatec will
build, operate and majority own the facility while Egyptian Basic
Industries Corporation (EBIC) will utilize the green hydrogen
produced as an additional feedstock for the production of 90,000
metric tons of green ammonia per annum. This fresh corporation
considered a part of Scatec’s strategic initiative, ‘‘Power to X’’,
that obtain long term partnerships globally to take advantage of
its expertise in renewable project development in high growth
markets (Ghaffari-Moghaddam et al.,2014;Anon,2021i).
The switch from ‘‘gray’’ to ‘‘green’’ ammonia has high im-
portance since it will be considered as a promising eco-friendly
fuel that it can act as an ideal carrier fuel for transporting and
storing hydrogen, can be used in fertilizer and many industrial
applications. Egypt is considered a strategic place that have high
potential to take benefit from abundancy of renewable sources
as wind and solar for the production green hydrogen/ammonia.
The Final Investment Decision is projected in 2022, and start-up
is estimated for 2024. Hence for the success completion of the
project, the parties will pursue support from the Egyptian govern-
ment for compulsory regulatory approvals (Ghaffari-Moghaddam
et al.,2014;Anon,2021i).
2.2.3. Morocco
A partnership is launched between Germany and the Mo-
roccan government in an agreement which was signed on 10th
of June 2020. This agreement tends to improve the production
of green hydrogen by establishing two mega projects (Is and
Hydrogen,2021). The first project, which is power-to-x, will
focus on the diverse techniques for generating energy especially
green hydrogen which is projected by the Moroccan Agency for
Sustainable Energy (MASEN). It aims in minimizing 100,000 tons
of the Co2emissions and developing the first green hydrogen
plant in Africa that includes building hybrid photovoltaic/wind
power plant with an electrolysis capacity of 100 MW to fulfill the
demand of the green hydrogen plant (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
On the other hand, the second project involves the formation
of a research platform regarding the Power-to- in cooperation
with the Moroccan Research Institute for Solar Energy and New
Energies (IRESEN) (Is and Hydrogen,2021).
2.2.4. Nigeria
The Federal Government of Nigeria have interest to develop
the green hydrogen though the National Energy Policy 2018 that
have the authority for executing a detailed short, medium and
long-term strategy to facilitate the implication of hydrogen en-
ergy in Nigeria (Is and Hydrogen,2021;Mas’ud et al.,2015).
2.2.5. Uganda
Some initiatives that were launched have dependency on
public–private partnerships to guarantee the prospects of green
hydrogen to underserved networks. In Uganda, a partnership or
cooperation between the Rural Electrification Agency and the
Belgian company Tiger Power were launched aims to afford solar
power Kyen jojo District to 3 different villages (Is and Hydrogen,
2021;Nikolaidis and Poullikkas,2017). The technique is utilizing
hydrogen batteries to store the overabundance energy created by
solar panels in order to avoid the disparity at night by providing a
constant supply of electricity (Is and Hydrogen,2021;Nikolaidis
and Poullikkas,2017).
2.2.6. Other projects
Other project, such as H2Atlas Africa, was launched with
the authority of mapping out suitable places for green hydrogen
3878

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Table 1
The performance of green hydrogen in different countries in the world and different countries of Africa.
Country Study Result Ref
Argentina
Study the accessibility of using distinct
Renewables such as solar, wind , biomass ,
geothermal and municipal solid waste
•The study shows that there is only 10% of Argentina’s land
is proper for doing renewable projects; however, it is
adequate for replacing the total fuel.
Gielen et al.
(2019a)
Pakistan •The study shows that the Pakistan’s most feasible renewable
source for hydrogen generating is biomass then solar
photovoltaic (PV) and municipal solid waste. With annual
hydrogen production equals to 6.6 million tons, 2.8 million
tons, and 1 million tons respectively.
Gielen et al.
(2019a)
West Africa •The study shows that wind power is a good alternative to
solar PV component as it affords stability to hybrid power
systems that have limited hydropower resources.
Anon (2021c)
South Africa,
Egypt and
Nigeria.
•The study shows that wind and solar energy are two
promising renewables in South Africa, While the Egyptian
promising renewables are hydropower and emergent solar
power base. Furthermore, hydro, solar, and wind power
respectively are promising renewables in Nigeria
Aliyu et al.
(2018),
Marchese et al.
(2020)
South Africa •Other investigation shows that the daily solar irradiation in
South Africa varies from 4 to 6.5 kWh/m2 day as the average
hours of sunshine per year reaches 2500 h. While, the
annually wind speed in the coastal region of South Africa
varies from 5.6 and 8.7 m/s with power density ranges from
218 to 693W/m2 at 10 m anemometer height. Moreover,
biomass has 83.91 Tera gram per year with hydro potential of
4.851 GW.
Ayodele and
Munda (2019)
Ukraine •The study shows that 2174 billion kWh will be generated
by wind power plants to produce green hydrogen of quantity
reaches 43 million tons/ year. This electricity consumption is
assumed to be 15 times greater than the yearly electricity
consumption in Ukraine
Kudria et al.
(2021)
Venezuela The study shows that the total production of
hydrogen per year is 2.073 ×1010 kg, which
resembles about 95% of solar photovoltaic
energy.
Study the potential production of green hydrogen using
electrolysis of water from wind and mini hydro engines
Anon (2018)
Algeria The analysis shows that in Tamenrasset, the
highest irradiation was found to be 2413
Kilowatt Hours (kWh)/m2/year; while in Adrar,
the highest wind speed was found to be
6.38 m/s; on the other hand, in Al-Taref, the
lowest irradiation was found and it equals to
1692 kWh/m2/year; Also, the lowest wind
speed was found in Tizi-Ouzou equal to
1.6 m/s .
Test the potential production of hydrogen through analyzing,
both statically and graphically, the renewable energies by
using geographical information system(GIS)
Pattabathula
and Richardson
(2016)
Morocco This study shows that PV technology is very
promising technology in Morocco that can be
used to produce green hydrogen, as the
levelized cost of Hydrogen production LCOH2
is equal to 5.57 $/Kg. However, the optimal
technology for hydrogen production is the
1-axis tracking as it is at lower cost while its
capability of generating hydrogen is close to
the amount of 2 axis PV.
Study the electrolytic hydrogen production(yield and making
cost) from different solar technologies under various climate
zones
Ufomba (2020)
Ecuador The study shows that a production of
hydrogen per year reaches 4.55 ×108 kg.
while the availability of other renewables was
tested in Ecuador and the results found that
the biomass is significantly a potential source
in generating green hydrogen approximately
1,600,000 ton H2/year which contributed about
38% of the national energy demand in 2017
Study the production of green hydrogen by using electrolyzer
[PEM] with eff. 75%
Vázquez others
(2018)–Posso
et al. (2020).
Egypt Study of the development of 50–100 MW
electrolyzer to produce green hydrogen as an
additional feedstock for the production of
90,000 metric tons of green ammonia per
annum .
It proves the potential of the production of green hydrogen
using electrolysis of water from wind and solar using polymer
electrolyte membrane electrolyzer (PEM)
Anon (2022d),
Ghaffari-
Moghaddam
et al. (2014),
Anon (2021i).
production in Western and Southern Africa. The project mainly
analyzes the potential factors, for instance, the land availability
or the availability of water and renewable energy sources, and
the cost efficiency of hydrogen production across a total of 31
sub-Saharan countries (Is and Hydrogen,2021;Wall,1960). Then,
these areas of interest were highlighted to show the green hydro-
gen production hotspots, distribution, and exports. Moreover, it
aims to design a pilot concepts to develop the local economy and
find potentials for economically viable hydrogen supply chain. In
order to achieve the target, a partnership was done with two
existing associations ‘‘The Western & Southern Africa Science
3879

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Table 2
Competency centers under HySA.
Table 3
Benefits for the EU and AU to cooperate for the development of hydrogen market.
Community for Environmental Change and Versatile (WASCAL)
(SASSCAL)’’ supported by the German government for developing
and upgrading research into sustainable development (Is and
Hydrogen,2021;Wall,1960).
2.3. Hydrogen current production methods
There are three main technologies that are used in Hydrogen
production process (I. Energy Agency,2019;Nazir et al.,2020;
Jensterle et al.,2019). First technology is called ‘‘reformation’’.
It includes various types that proceed through using different
sources of oxygen as partial and auto-thermal reformation. Nev-
ertheless, the prime technology in reformation is called ‘‘steam
reformation’’, in which it uses water in steam form. Moreover, it
is usually used to natural gas feedstocks to form the syngas (I.
Energy Agency,2019;Nazir et al.,2020;Jensterle et al.,2019).
However, the partial reformation uses air as a source of oxygen,
and is usually applied to biomass and oil feedstocks. Furthermore,
the auto-thermal technology is a unique technology in which
it relies on both water and oxygen in the hydrogen production
process. The second technology is called ‘‘Gasification’’. It is a
technology that is typically take place with certain feedstocks as
coal and biomass. In addition, in both reformation and gasification
3880

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
technologies the feedstock is firstly converted to syn-gas which is
a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Then, consequently,
syn-gas is converted into hydrogen and CO2, and each one of
them can be individually separated. These two technologies are
carbon intensive process as huge quantity of CO2is produced.
Finally, the third technology is called ‘‘electrolysis’’. This process
generates hydrogen by allowing an electrical current to pass
through water. The involved electricity led to the split of water
into hydrogen and oxygen. Moreover, there are more than one
source for generating this electricity used. It can either be gener-
ated be through fossil fuels or renewable energy sources (Patel,
2020). However, the renewable energy is the preferred route
for the electricity production as it is considered a carbon non
intensive process since that the production of hydrogen is highly
depending on the fossil fuel as the feedstock of the process.
Unfortunately, the production of hydrogen is destined to be car-
bon intensive (Patel,2020). Therefore, according to the feedstock
employed in the process which can be natural gas, oil, or coal,
the carbon intensity of hydrogen production can be identified.
For example, if the feedstock is a natural gas, there are 10 tons of
CO2are formed corresponding to each ton of hydrogen produced.
On the other hand, if the feedstock is oil, the carbon intensity
is increased as there are 12 tons of carbon dioxide are formed
per a ton of hydrogen produced. However, if the feed stock is a
coal, the carbon intensity is increased much higher as for each
ton of hydrogen produced there are 19 tons of carbon dioxide are
formed (IRENA,2014). Due to this disadvantage of using fossil fuel
in the production of hydrogen process, the total emissions of CO2
annually reaches 830 million tons accompanying only 70 million
tons of hydrogen are produced annually (Ayodele and Munda,
2019). In terms of statistics, these carbon emissions, that results
due to the hydrogen production process, roughly equates to the
average annual carbon dioxide emissions of the United Kingdom
and the Indonesia combined together (Ayodele and Munda,2019).
2.4. Hydrogen current storage & transport infrastructure in africa
In Africa, hydrogen can be stored in various forms by applying
temperature and pressure to change its condition chemically or
physically or physio-chemically (Jensterle et al.,2019;Marchese
et al.,2020). It can be compressed in gas state or liquefied to a
liquid state to be stored in tanks, as well as it can be stored in geo-
logical storage, for instance, in depleted gas well and salt-caverns
. The choice for the storage depends mainly on the time interval
for the storage, the volume and the accessible geology (Jensterle
et al.,2019;Marchese et al.,2020). Hence, hydrogen can be con-
verted and stored to many liquid or solid compounds as carbon
structure, metal hydrides, and light hydrocarbons. Hydrogen can
be transported using vessels, tanks, or pipelines in which it is
mixed with methane gas or dedicated (Nikolaidis and Poullikkas,
2017).
In Africa, for exporting hydrogen by ships, pressure must be
applied to reach a temperature of 253 ◦C (Nazir et al.,2020).
Then, it can be liquefied or converted to ammonia or other form
of carrier. Due to the conversion, some energy can be lost which
will lead to a direct increase in costs. However, other method
can be implemented to solve this issue, which uses the current
infrastructure of natural gas pipelines but with some modifica-
tions. This method is cost effective, and can be implemented from
morocco or Tunisia to Europe (IRENA,2019).
An umbrella business organization, named ‘‘Hydrogen Eu-
rope’’, has announced that the African existing natural gas infras-
tructure has a high potential in direct transportation of renewable
hydrogen from North Africa to Europe (Jensterle et al.,2019). In
Africa, the transportation of green hydrogen will use pipelines
that will cost approximately 0.22 USD/kg to transport it from
North Africa to Europe (Jensterle et al.,2019). Furthermore, a
local green hydrogen economy is constructed for the utilization in
and across regions along with the current infrastructure routes of
seaports, railways and roads. According to mapping done by the
African Hydrogen partnership, South Africa, Morocco, Ethiopia–
Djibouti, Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania–Rwanda–Kenya, and Egypt
have been recognized as six potential landing zones (IRENA,
2014) (see Fig. 6).
As of now, natural gas in Libya & Algeria is exported via
pipelines with a capacity of 60 GW to Italy and Spain, while
Morocco is interconnected with Spain by means of two subma-
rine power cables with roughly 800 MW limit (IRENA,2014).
Moreover, Morocco has highly hydrogen export potential on the
ground in Africa. By taking use of the existing gas infrastructure,
Morocco can transport hydrogen through pipelines which will be
connected to European gas grid, building a hydrogen landing zone
in Morocco that will be a strategic location to connect with other
African nations (Nouryon,2019).
The existing infrastructure in transportation consists of
pipelines connecting Libya and Algeria to Europe through Spain
and Italy that transfer around 63.5 bcm annually to shift the ca-
pacity to be greater than 60 GW (Marchese et al.,2020). Besides,
two routes can be implemented, converting the current pipelines
or constructing new pipelines for transporting green hydrogen
from North Africa to Europe, this will cost 19.14 billion USD if
the dimension of a corridor 2500 km long involving two pipelines
with 48 inches diameter each (I. Energy Agency,2019;Anon,
2021l). The transportation cost of this route is affordable to be
0.0058 USD/kWh or 0.22 USD/Kg (I. Energy Agency,2019;Anon,
2021l). Finally in order to establish a basis for the implementation
and transportation of green hydrogen, the location of the invest-
ment of electrolyzers need to be chosen taking in consideration
to be rich in renewable energy sources (I. Energy Agency,2019;
Anon,2021l).
3. Benefits of implementing Green hydrogen technology in
africa
According to the pathway implemented to attain hydrogen
competitiveness by the Hydrogen Council, Three needs are pre-
sented (I. Energy Agency,2019). First, a need pointed to more in-
vestment for growing up the green hydrogen production; hence,
the cost competitiveness will be enhanced (I. Energy Agency,
2019). Second, a need pointed to establishing policy alignment
for providing area of conservative and clean technologies. Third,
a need pointed to establishing and creating a market by the in-
tensification in the utilization and scale, the reduction of demand
uncertainty, and the focus on complementary solutions that of-
fer spill-over effects. For instance, this can be fulfilled through
the expansion of hydrogen infrastructure near the airports and
industrial complexes (I. Energy Agency,2019). The benefits will
be discussed in details in the following sub-sections.
Globally, the demand of hydrogen has been scaling up directly
with time, in which the total demand of hydrogen in 2018 is
triple the total demand in 1975 (I. Energy Agency,2019). Based
on Fig. 7, the consumption of hydrogen is mainly utilized in three
routes accounting around 74% as follows: the oil refining, direct
reduced iron (DRI), and steel production and chemical production
(i.e., the ammonia and methanol synthesis (I. Energy Agency,
2019). The pure form of hydrogen demand accounts around 70
million tons of hydrogen per year (MtH2/yr) in 2018. Moreover,
the consumption of hydrogen in industries which do not re-
quire separating the hydrogen from other gases, like methanol
or steel production, accounts 45 MtH2/yr. Prospectively, the total
global hydrogen demand accounts around 330 million tons of oil
equivalent a year (I. Energy Agency,2019).
3881

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 6. Six potential landing zones (Ayodele and Munda,2019).
Fig. 7. Global annual demand for hydrogen, 1975-2018 (Wall,1960).
3.1. Benefits in decarbonizing the current industrial use
Decarburization of the current industrial use is done by the
utilization of low-carbon green hydrogen routes. The current use
of hydrogen in Africa is dedicated to chemical production, oil
refining, and iron and steel production (Nouryon,2019).
3.1.1. Benefits in the chemical production sector
In Africa, the chemical industries demand depends mainly on
the ammonia and methanol production. A significant amount of
hydrogen is currently utilized as an input for the production of
methanol and ammonia and other smaller-scale chemical pro-
cesses. They account for a high capacity of production which is
9 million tons/ year for ammonia and 9.3 million metric ton/year
3882

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 8. Current major uses of hydrogen in Africa (Gielen et al.,2019a;Borschette,2019;I Renewable Energy Agency and T Methanol Institute,2021).
for methanol as shown in Fig. 8 (Van Nuffel et al.,2018;Lehmann
et al.,2018). Hence, the production of green hydrogen is essential
for the help of enhancing the growth of production (Anon,2021l).
According to the estimate of IEA, a predictable enlargement is
the demand of hydrogen in chemicals to increase from 44 Mt/yr
in 2019 to 57 Mt/yr by 2030 (I. Energy Agency,2019). This will
endorse rising in methanol and ammonia demand as they became
energy carriers for hydrogen. For instance, for ease of transporta-
tion, hydrogen should be changing its form or be compressed (I.
Energy Agency,2019). Ammonia has various benefits, in which it
is essential in the production of explosives, fertilizers, and acts
as feedstock to many downstream industries. While Methanol is
essential as it is utilized as an alternative fuel source and input
for producing polymers and chemicals like formaldehyde and
acetic acid that are utilized in many applications such as solvents,
adhesives and foams (Siemens,2019;Nazir et al.,2020).
Morocco accounts around 1–2 million tons annually of im-
porting fossil-based ammonia which is utilized with phosphate
to produce fertilizers (Anon,2021f). Hence, by shifting the gray
ammonia or the fossil based ammonia will attain reduction in
costs or carbon emissions. Therefore, it is expected that morocco
will produce ammonia in a carbon natural way, and replace the
amount it currently imports by 2030 (Anon,2021l).
3.1.2. Benefits in the oil refining sector
Africa accounts a high capacity of oil production around
3217,600 barrels per day (bpd); hence, implementing green hy-
drogen will help in some uses in oil refining sector (Borschette,
2019). The refineries make an advantage from hydrogen to re-
move contaminants, and to reduce the sulfur content of diesel
fuel. Besides, it is utilized in the production of petroleum product
as diesel and gasoline by means of hydro-cracking (Borschette,
2019). Furthermore, Hydrogen demand in the oil refining sector
is determined by some complex factors that take account of
the quality of crude oil in the market, the outlook & the total
demand of oil, and the amount of H2needed in fuel for lower
sulfur-content based on the environmental regulations (Patel,
2020).
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the cur-
rent capacity of refiners can fulfill the general demand of oil until
2030. It shows that the least cost for hydrogen production route is
some small modifications in the existing refiners that utilize low
carbon technology or by utilizing the carbon capture technology
to be retrofitted with the current refineries. This is seen to be a
shift in the production of green hydrogen (Deutsche Umwelthilfe
(DUH),2020;Is and Hydrogen,2021). In contrast, with setting
up new and devoted green hydrogen creation for oil refining, the
retrofitting of existing treatment facilities is as yet viewed as an
ease course contrasted with setting up new and devoted green
hydrogen production for oil refining (Patel,2020).
However, despite this understanding, Africa must plan to cap-
italize devoted electrolytic capacity similarly to those planned in
Europe, Germany, and Netherlands ‘‘Rotterdam’’ (IRENA,2019).
For instance, in 2020 in Germany, ITM power in cooperation with
Shell has reported a 10 MW ‘‘PEM’’ electrolyzer project at its
Rhineland Processing plant which is obtained for replacing the
current gas-based supply (1 ktH2/year) to fulfill roughly 1% of
the refinery’s hydrogen needs. Additionally, in Rotterdam, British
Petroleum ‘‘BP ‘‘in a partnership with the Port of Rotterdam
Authority and Nouryon, has announced a feasibility analysis of
250 MW electrolysis plant which is expected to produce 45
ktH2/year (Anon,2021h). Similarly in Germany, in partnership
with the ThyssenKrupp Industrial solutions, a 30 MW electrolyzer
project was launched in a small refinery called Heide to be united
with offshore wind power for substituting purchases of up to 3
ktH2/year and scaling up the project after five years to a 700 MW
plant (Anon,2021h;AbouSeada et al.,2022).
3.1.3. Benefits in iron and steel production
A capacity of 16 million ton of iron and steel is produced yearly
in Africa, in which hydrogen is used in it (Siemens,2019). The
source of hydrogen differs by the production route; accordingly,
integrating green hydrogen synthesis will be very beneficial in
improving the iron and steel sector. Production of steel is classi-
fied into two main methods or routes as follows: the first route
is the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route which
accounts for 90% of the world wide steel production; and the
3883

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
second route is the direct reduction of iron-electric arc furnace
(DRI-EAF) which accounts roughly for 7% of the worldwide steel
production (I. Energy Agency,2019).
The BF-BOF route is mainly dependent on coal as a feedstock,
while the production of hydrogen is obtained as a byproduct
within the process that is utilized or solid in industrial appli-
cation. This method produce gas emissions and not environ-
mentally friendly; hence, carbon-capture technologies must be
implemented to reduce them. In contrast, the DRI-EAF route
mainly depends on hydrogen to be both utilized as an input for
the process and hydrogen is required to be produced. Since the
utilization in this method accounts around 25% of coal and the
remaining 75% of the gray hydrogen which is produced from
natural gas; accordingly, a shift to integrate the green hydrogen to
the DRI-EAF route will be the future and its demand is expected
to rise especially because the production demand for steel from
the DRI-EAF route is projected to a noticeable increase, which is
the double, from the current 7% in 2019 to the expected 14% in
2030 (Patel,2020).
Africa must implement green hydrogen initiatives in the sector
of iron and steel production similarly to those planned in Sweden,
Germany, and Japan. For instance, in Sweden, a joint venture
called HYBRIT was established in order to discover the feasibility
of hydrogen-based steelmaking by means of designing a modified
green hydrogen basis DRI-EAF process (Hybrit,2021). Moreover,
in Germany, a joint venture called SALCOS was established in
order to combine hydrogen produced from wind power with
natural gas also by means of designing modified green hydro-
gen basis DRI-EAF process (Patel,2020). Additionally, in japan,
a new lab scale technology is planned to help in integrating
green hydrogen with ammonia for steelmaking (I. Energy Agency,
2019).
3.2. Benefits in the building & power & storage &transportation
sector
With the increase in Africa’s demand for energy, applying
short-term energy storage solutions is a must, for instance in
batteries, as a direct method or indirect with long-term solutions
like Power-to-X (Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH),2020). Hence, a
reduction in the demand of the electricity can be obtained by
utilizing power-to-x technology to produce synthetic fuels and
hydrogen (Patel,2020). The sector of buildings consumes a huge
percentage of energy in Africa; as a result, hydrogen can be mixed
with natural gas and utilized in heating. Nowadays, the direct
use of hydrogen is somehow challenging in the manufacturing of
applications like fuel-cell micro-generators or hydrogen boilers
on the ground of the various property ownership models and
the huge amount of stakeholders (Velazquez Abad and Dodds,
2020). African nations can develop their frameworks and own
economies by using the renewables for generating green hydro-
gen. Accordingly, Africa will not have the need to import carbon
intensive chemicals or non-renewable energy sources ‘‘i.e., fossil
fuels’’. For instance, Morocco could be self-sufficient in the sector
of importing ammonia for its industry (Anon,2021f).
In the power sector, implementing green hydrogen will pro-
vide energy storage solutions by utilizing the excess of elec-
trical energy temporally and geographically (Anon,2021f). This
can be achieved by balancing the disparity in the electricity
systems and by solving the problems in the off-grid electricity
systems. Moreover, end uses in this sector include ammonia or
co-firing hydrogen gas for providing flexible generation and fuel
cells (AbouSeada et al.,2022). Additionally, many job opportuni-
ties will take place. This is because for every 1 GWe of installed
capacity for Power-to-X, there will be job offers ranging from 300
to 700 opportunities (Population of Africa (2021) - Worldometer,
2021).
Regarding the transportation sector, hydrogen has strong po-
tential to be used in many applications especially in the segment
of heavy-duty vehicle market. The specification of hydrogen in
energy mass is very high in comparison with other fuels. Also, it
has higher rate of diffusion, and lower ignition energy and tem-
perature which will make utilizing hydrogen is more efficient in
operation (Dutta,2014;Kombargi et al.,2020). Hydrogen can be
used to be an alternative for fuels in conventional spark ignition
engines without any need for adjustment to the engine (Dutta,
2014). However, the hydrogen-based Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles
(FCEVs) is an application that utilizes hydrogen as a feed for
driving electric motors (I. Energy Agency,2019). Hydrogen can
not only be used for cars and heavy duty vehicles (e.g. buses,
trucks and forklifts), but also is used in other modes like aviation
and maritime (Patel,2020).
According to IEA report in 2020, a special attention on the
industrial ports should be paid, meanwhile, they are the key hy-
drogen demand centers because the location of various chemical
industrial plants, and refineries near the coastal areas (Siemens,
2019). Though, the utilization of hydrogen will be used by blend-
ing it with methane for the reduction in the transport costs, and
it can be increased by intensifying fleets and freight corridors.
Finally, taking an advantage from the experience of the global
LNG market, an International hydrogen shipping routes must be
attained (UNFCCC,2022;Anon,2022b).
4. Polices for implementing green hydrogen in africa
There are some polices and factors driving the use of green
hydrogen for future implementation including the joint effort and
partnership across borders that will be discussed in details in the
following sub-sections.
4.1. African Hydrogen Partnership (AHP)
A new partnership is established in Africa called ‘‘African Hy-
drogen Partnership’’ (AHP) with an authority to launch renewable
hydrogen economies (Anon,2021a). This will help in proposing
solutions to the various problems facing the African nations in
the social, economic, and environmental sectors. Hence, this as-
sociation proposed a framework for the vision, in which it begins
with building power-to-gas renewable energy hubs in ports, large
metropolitan areas, and mining centers located in the trans-
African highways. The energy hub will serve various industries
start from small scale businesses to chemical and industrial pro-
ductions. Besides, it can act as a source of electricity to houses
and is used in fuel cell transport (Anon,0000).
4.2. ‘‘Agenda 2063’’
767080218757500Other program, called ‘‘Agenda 2063’’, was
settled in May 2013 for applying the aim of shifting African coun-
tries to the global powerhouse of the future (Commission,2021).
It is worth mentioning that it is a strategic framework which has
the intentions to achieve sustainable development. The agenda
proposed aspirations, as shown in Fig. 9, which was interpreted
into real actions in a form of a group of flagship projects of a ten-
year implementation plan (Bhagwat and Olczak,2020). It is the
continent’s strategic framework that aims to deliver on its goal
for inclusive and sustainable development and is a concrete man-
ifestation of the pan-African drive for unity, self-determination,
freedom, progress, and collective prosperity pursued under Pan-
Africanism and African Renaissance (Commission,2021).
3884

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 9. Agenda 2063’s seven aspirations.
4.3. Europe’s hydrogen ambitions for africa ‘‘european hydrogen
strategy’’
The European countries face many challenges to attain the re-
gional capacity for producing their renewable energy locally (Eu-
ropean comission,2020). Hence, the European governments cat-
egorize the African nations as potential partners seeking their
support for achieving the target of Paris agreement for green
future. This cooperation between the two continents was also
entitled as the ‘‘European Hydrogen Strategy’’ which aims to: (1)
highlight the mutual benefits of the hydrogen ecosystem; and (2)
enhance the cooperation for the innovation and research to tech-
nological development, regulatory policy, and physical intercon-
nections (Anon,0000). The profits of the implementation of the
hydrogen market are stated in more detail in Table 3 (Bhagwat
and Olczak,2020).
The hydrogen strategy noted that a potential of projects, with
an authority to invest in the African and European countries,
are planned to be funded by European Fund for Sustainable
Development (Anon,0000). Besides, across Africa, more than =
C3
billion was funded by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in
2020 to attain: (1) the development 2050 decarburization goals;
(2) climate related investment with an estimation of 2250 TWh
or 24% of the total energy demand; and (3) solutions for the
challenges associated to peace, justice, poverty, environmental
degradation and inequality (IRENA,2015). Furthermore, other
funds, as Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), were executed to
promote evolution by targeted infrastructure investment (Anon,
0000). A new neighborhood, named Development and Interna-
tional Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), was executed with a total
budget of =
C80 billion to focus on climate intentions from 2021
to 2027 (Vandeputte,2020). Around =
C30 billion were reserved
for sub-Saharan Africa. Finally Projects of Common Interest (PCIs)
was executed by the legislation on the Trans European Energy
Networks (TEN-E Regulation) and European Energy Networks) fo-
cusing on hydrogen. Presently, the only PCI which include African
countries is the electricity interconnection between Italy and
Tunisia (Anon,0000).
5. Analysis of hydrogen production routes
Currently, the production of Hydrogen can occur through uti-
lizing various numbers of feedstocks. For instance, the predomi-
nant source of hydrogen production nowadays is the fossil fuels
in which they act as the lead feedstock that represents almost
the higher percentage of hydrogen production compared to the
other feedstocks (Messaoudi et al.,2020). The natural gas alone is
responsible for production of 75% of currently hydrogen produced
in the market, while the coal alone accounting for additional 23%
of hydrogen production (I. Energy Agency,2019). Other feed-
stocks, such as oil and electrolysis, account toward the remaining
percentage of the worldwide hydrogen production. This percent-
age does not exceed 2% of the total hydrogen production (I.
Energy Agency,2019).
5.1. The route of the future ‘‘electrolysis’’
Presently, electrolysis is the best recognized clean method for
producing green hydrogen (Nicita et al.,2020). An electrolyzer
is a device that is used in this process in which its main func-
tion, with the help of electricity, is to split water molecules
into oxygen and hydrogen. According to the Hydrogen Coun-
cil, the investments in green hydrogen production are readily
to be increased on the ground in which the renewable energy
cost is gradually decreasing and the capacity of electrolysis is
managing an entire growth by 55 times in year 2025 (Anon,
0000). Electrical energy has a vital role in the electrolysis of
water or in the production of the green hydrogen. Moreover, it
is generated by many renewable resources as solar energy and
wind energy. The technique of electrolysis resembles only about
2% of the entire global hydrogen production economy (Deutsche
Umwelthilfe (DUH),2020). Nowadays, the world is targeting a
clean environment with less carbon dioxide involved; thus, green
hydrogen need to be produced with high ranges to fulfill the
above statement. The power of the investment in hydrogen tech-
nology is noticed as companies such as Siemens and other key
partners have introduced ‘‘Proton Exchange Membrane’’ (PEM)
electrolysis technology as a promising technology that generates
hydrogen from water splitting (Siemens,2019).
5.2. The three main technologies of electrolysis
The first type of electrolysis is the alkaline electrolysis (Dincer,
2012). It is considered the oldest technology, but it has the longest
standing commercial sustainability. The setup of this technology
includes two separate electrodes immersed in a liquid alkaline
3885

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Table 4
Electrolysis technology properties Patel (2020).
Electrolysis-technology Alkaline electrolysis Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Solid-Oxide Electrolysis (SOEC)
Timeframe 2019 2030 2019 2030 2019 2030
Lifetime (operating hours) 60 000–90 000 10000–150 000 30 000–90 000 100000–150 000 10000–30000 75000–100 000
Operating temperature (◦C) 60–80 – 50–80 - 50–1000 -
Electrical-efficiency (%LHV) 63–70 70–80 56–60 67–74 74–81 77–99
Plant-footprint (m2/kWe) 0.095 – 0.048 – –
Capital-costs (US$/kWe) 500–1400 200–700 1100–1800 200–900 2800–5600 500–1000
electrolyte ‘‘caustic potash solution’’ and a diaphragm with a
purpose of separating the product gases (Carmo et al.,2013).
Alkaline electrolysis is considered the cheapest technology in
term of capital cost since it does not entail precious materials as
an input, a typical feature in chlorine and fertilizer industries, and
it has the longest lifetime (Schmidt et al.,2017).
The second type of electrolysis is the ‘‘Proton Exchange Mem-
brane’’ (PEM) electrolyzer, It utilizes a proton exchange mem-
brane for generating hydrogen (Project FLEXCHX,2018). In com-
parison with the alkaline electrolysis, this technology requires
using membrane materials and expensive catalysts, and it has
lesser lifetime than alkaline systems. But, it has more superior
properties as: (1) it offers flexible operation with different elec-
tricity supplies; (2) it has the capability to compress hydrogen
with a higher degree; and (3) it has lesser cost than alkaline
systems in terms of the recovery and recycling of electrolyte
solutions since pure water is utilized in this technology (I. Energy
Agency,2019;Anon,2021k). However, in terms of the catalyst
used, the PEM is more expensive on the ground that utilizes
electrode catalysts such as platinum and iridium. Unlike the other
countries, Africa, especially South Africa, will not face challenges
regarding utilizing platinum since it has an abundant amount of
platinum deposits that accounts 75% of the world platinum de-
posits as aforementioned. Hence, implementing this technology
in Africa will be very beneficial to the country (Bessarabov et al.,
2012;Anon,2021k).
Finally, the third technology is the ‘‘Solid Oxide Electrolysis
Cell’’ (SOEC) (Dincer,2012). It is considered the newest technol-
ogy;, however, it is constructed till now on a small scale not
in commercial operation. Unlike other technologies, SOEC have
unique features. They are electrically efficient, and the system
can work in a reverse mode that will allow hydrogen to generate
electricity helping in periods when grid-based electricity is con-
strained (Project FLEXCHX,2018). Besides, it attracts low material
costs. Nevertheless, SOEC’s is operated at high temperature, so
it require heat., It has shorter lifetime that the first and second
technology because of the materials degrading resulted from
operation at high temperature. In addition to that, in terms of
capital expenditure, they are highly expensive. Presently, most of
the development and research are focusing on searching for new
materials that can be produced in lower temperature, or materials
that can endure and survive SOEC systems which is operating at
very high temperatures (Project FLEXCHX,2018). This technology
is not favorable till now; though, most of the new installations
prefers utilizing the PEM technology (Patel,2020).
5.3. Principal properties of each technology
The Principal properties of each technology is discussed in Ta-
ble 4. The capital costs is defined as the cost of the system
that mainly consist of gas conditioning, power electronics, and
balance of plant which is the auxiliary systems or the supporting
components consisting of equipment like supporting structures,
transformers, and inverters (I. Energy Agency,2019).
5.4. Cost dynamics
The total unit cost of producing hydrogen from water elec-
trolysis depends on three focal issues: the capital costs, annual
system operating hours, and electricity costs (Anon,0000). For
instance, the capital costs in this process can vary according to
the type of electrolyzers used. Moreover, the electrolyzer’s stack
is put in consideration as it accounts a range from 50% to 60%
of the total capital costs (Anon,0000). There are three types of
these electrolyzers, first one is the alkaline electrolyzer, and it
costs a range of $500 US to $1400 US/kWe. Second electrolyzer
is the PEM, and it costs a range of $1100 US to $1800 US/kWe.
Finally, the SOEC electrolyzers are in the ranges of $2800 US to
$600 US/kWe (Anon,0000).
By increasing the system capacity through adding more electr-
olyzer stacks, the total cost can be possibly decreased (I. Energy
Agency,2019). Furthermore, the second focal issue is the annual
system operating hours. As the operating hours of an electrolyzer
increases, the effect of capital costs drops; however, the effect
of electricity costs increases (Is and Hydrogen,2021). Thus, the
variance in the costs of the current water electrolysis projects
depends on the number of hours that the system is operated.
Consequently, the solution for an optimal hydrogen production at
low cost using water electrolysis system is to aim to operate the
system with a high number of hours; thus, declining the capital
costs and producing significant volumes of low-cost hydrogen.
Accordingly, the use of low-cost electricity supply is dominant.
This can be achieved through generating electricity using renew-
able energy-based generation such as solar photovoltaic (PV) and
wind generation that have declining costs (Anon,0000).
5.5. Production costs of different hydrogen production routes
The costs of hydrogen production differ from route to other
when comparing the cost of gray hydrogen to blue to green, it is
concluded that the cost range for gray hydrogen is the least range
from 1–1.80 USD/kg, followed by the blue hydrogen which ranges
from 1.40–2.40 USD/kg (Barhorst,2016), and the highest is green
hydrogen which ranges from 2.5 to 7 USD/kg. As shown in Fig. 10,
(Anon,0000).
Nevertheless, the green hydrogen cost can be decreased to 1.5
USD/kg in the case scenario of utilizing wind coupled with a low-
cost electrolyzer as shown in Fig. 11 (Anon,2021b). Furthermore,
the cost of renewables is expected to be reduced by time since
the scale of production increases from MW to GW, for instance,
it is estimated that wind and solar cost will range from 1 to
2 USD/kg in maximum 3 to 5 years from now. Besides, green
hydrogen route will be very competitive and the price can turn
out to be 1 Kg/Euro if the production is done appropriate RE
location . Another significant factor that should be considered is
the usage of electrolyzer plants. (i.e. load factor), in which the
degree of utilization will influence the cost (IRENA,2019).
3886

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 10. Production costs of different hydrogen production routes.
Fig. 11. Average levelized cost of hydrogen production by energy source and technology.
5.6. Carbon intensity of production routes
As shown in Fig. 12, According to the different routes of
hydrogen production, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions
has a widespread difference from a route compared to another
(Bermudez et al.,2020). The key element that leads to the vari-
ance of the carbon dioxide intensities of electrolysis technology is
the source of electricity used. The electricity based on renewable
energy does not cause any carbon emissions ‘‘i.e. zero emissions’’.
However, when the electricity is generated from fossil fuels plants
and used in the electrolysis process, it leads to a huge production
of carbon dioxide emissions that is considered much higher than
the direct use of fossil fuels to produce hydrogen. Therefore, it
is recommended to use a low carbon source of electricity in this
technology in order to be greener process compared to the direct
hydrogen production from existing natural gas without Carbon
capture, utilization and storage ‘‘CCUS’’. The CO2intensity that
results from electrolysis process is recommended to not exceed
185 g emitted per kWh generated as this number of CO2intensity
is equal to almost half the emissions of a current combined-cycle
gas power plant (Anon,0000). Furthermore, from a sustainability
viewpoint, other factor which is the water intensity should be
considered for the hydrogen productions routes. It is obtained
that in comparison between route of the green hydrogen produc-
tion and the route of gray hydrogen production route using steam
reformation by natural gas that the Green hydrogen route has a
higher water roughly 1.3 times greater (Kombargi et al.,2020).
6. Conclusion
Presently the world is focusing on power-to-x solutions to
solve climate change crisis and to shift the world to be Net zero
emissions, if early implementation of green hydrogen takes place,
Africa will be shifted to a whole new level and would benefit
in many different applications across end-use. In this paper, the
prospects of green hydrogen production potential in Africa is
presented showing that Africa is a well suitable place for the
production and exporting of green hydrogen since it is rich with
abundant energy sources which has high RE potential. It includes
various rising wind, solar projects, and miscellaneous wealth of
natural resources which help in promoting the economic growth
and affording the sufficient capacity needed for meeting up the
future electricity demand. Moreover, this paper also discussed the
polices and factors driving the use of green hydrogen for future
implementation including the joint effort and partnership across
borders such as (AHP), ‘‘Agenda 2063’’ and European Hydrogen
Strategy. Additionally, the current African Infrastructure energy
sector was investigated pointing out the energy inputs and the
usage patterns. It was found that hydrogen production in Africa is
not restricted to the local advantages it offers. Various initiatives
such as HysA, and H2 Atlas Africa have been launched in order
to create a market for trading hydrogen not only for a domestic
use but also globally. The logistics of hydrogen transportation
to far-away markets can be challenging since that in Africa, for
exporting hydrogen by ships, pressure must be applied to reach a
temperature of 253 ◦C. Then, it can be liquefied or converted into
ammonia or other form of carrier. Due to the conversion, some
energy can be lost which will lead to a direct increase in costs.
However, other method which is cost effective was implemented
to solve this that uses the current infrastructure of natural gas
pipelines but with some modifications.
Moreover an overview for the benefits and the utilization of
shifting to the green Hydrogen route was highlighted. Some of
3887

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Fig. 12. Carbon emissions by hydrogen production route.
the key findings showed that carrying out green hydrogen will
address some challenges but will have many social and economic
benefits as follows: (1) the climate change catastrophe will be
avoided; (2) the greenhouse gases and the Co2emissions will be
reduced by the embrace of clean mode of air, water, transporta-
tion, air; (3) an increase in the electrification rate ; (4) hydrogen
will be used as an alternative fuel that will be shifted to replace
conventional cooking options and diesel generators; and (5) it
will bring socioeconomic benefits by increasing the wealth and
creating job opportunities.
Although green hydrogen is considered a key for decarburiza-
tion to many pathways with applications across various sectors
such as power sector, chemical production ‘‘e.g. ammonia and
methanol ‘‘, oil refining, iron and steel production, transportation
‘‘e.g. shipping, heavy-duty vehicle market, aviation’’. Focusing on
the economic & environmental perspective, green hydrogen till
now has the highest production cost route which is considered
a challenge; however, if the production is done in an appro-
priate renewable energy’s location, green hydrogen will be very
competitive to other routes and the price can turn out to be
1 Euro/Kg. Besides, it was found that the electricity based on
renewable energy does not cause any carbon emissions ‘‘i.e. zero
emissions ‘‘. In addition to that, it was concluded that Africa’s best
electrolyzer choice is (PEM) electrolyzer which uses platinum
as a catalyst because South Africa have an abundant amount
of platinum deposits that accounts 75% of the world platinum
deposits. Finally, a lot of investments and ventures are needed
to set up the foundation expected to deliver and ship green
hydrogen. Regardless of difficulties to develop green hydrogen
in Africa, the expected advantages from the developing hydrogen
economy on the country are undeniable.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared
to influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgment
This project is funded by the Academy of Scientific Research
and Technology (ASRT), Egypt under the program of ‘‘Joint Collab-
orative Efforts of Egyptians Expatriates & Scientific Organizations
toward Tackling R&D Challenges (JESOR)’’, Contract No. 17.
References
AbouSeada, N., Ahmed, M.A., Elmahgary, M.G., 2022. Synthesis and characteriza-
tion of novel magnetic nanoparticles for photocatalytic degradation of indigo
carmine dye. Mater. Sci. Energy Technol. 5, 116–124. http://dx.doi.org/10.
1016/J.MSET.2022.01.001.
Africa Energy Outlook 2019 – Analysis - IEA, 2019. World energy outlook. https:
//www.iea.org/reports/africa-energy- outlook-2019. (Accessed 18 Jun. 2021).
Aliyu, A.K., Modu, B., Tan, C.W., 2018. A review of renewable energy development
in Africa: A focus in South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria. Renew. Sustain. Energy
Rev. 81, 2502–2518. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.055, Jan. 01.
Anon, Focus on hydrogen: a new energy frontier for Africa.
Anon, 2018. Summeth summeth-sustainable marine methanol deliverable D5.1
co-funded by.
Anon, 2021a. African hydrogen partnership (AHP) |AHP. https://www.afr-h2-
p.com/. (Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021b. Global average levelised cost of hydrogen production by energy
source and technology, 2019 and 2050 – charts – data & statistics -
IEA. https://www.iea.org/data-and- statistics/charts/global-average- levelised-
cost-of- hydrogen-production- by-energy-source- and-technology- 2019-and-
2050. (Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021c. Hydrogen gas market size, growth & analysis
|global industry report 2021 to 2026 - mordor intelli-
gence. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/
hydrogen-gas- market?gclid=CjwKCAjwiLGGBhAqEiwAgq3q_
oW6rs5VTXOjeaPkmbZeE8rPmSfrna8ygJisS2xhuGpkGAtz5EYK3hoCqhsQAvD_
BwE. (Accessed 18 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021f. Morocco-to-X |2020 |siemens energy global. https:
//www.siemens-energy.com/global/en/news/magazine/2020/power- to-x-
morocco.html. (Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021g. (PDF) Renewable energy in the GCC: Status and challenges.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263368531_Renewable_energy_
in_the_GCC_Status_and_challenges. (Accessed 18 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021h. REFHYNE – clean refinery hydrogen for Europe. https://refhyne.eu/.
(Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021i. Scatec partners with fertiglobe and the sovereign fund of Egypt
to develop green hydrogen as feedstock for ammonia production in Egypt -
scatec. https://scatec.com/2021/10/14/scatec-partners- with-fertiglobe- and-
the-sovereign- fund-of- egypt-to-develop- green-hydrogen- as-feedstock- for-
ammonia-production- in-egypt/. (Accessed 16 Oct. 2021).
Anon, 2021j. South africa’s hydrogen fuel cell programme making steady
progress. [Online]. Available: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/
dotcom/client_service/EPNG/PDFs/Brighter_Africa-The_growth_potential_of_
the_sub-Saharan_electricity_sector.ashx. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021k. South africa’s hydrogen fuel cell programme making
steady progress. https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/south-
africas-hydrogen- fuel-cell- programme-making-steady- progress-2017-
04-13/rep_id:4136. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021l. Yara and ENGIE to test green hydrogen technology in
fertilizer production |yara international. https://www.yara.com/news-
and-media/news/archive/2019/yara- and-engie- to-test-green- hydrogen-
technology-in- fertilizer-production/. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2022a. •platinum metal reserves worldwide by country 2020 |Statista.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/273624/platinum-metal- reserves-by-
country/. (Accessed 08 Feb. 2022).
Anon, 2022b. Event: UN climate change conference 2022 (UNFCCC COP 27) |SDG
knowledge hub |IISD. https://sdg.iisd.org/events/2021-un- climate-change-
conference-unfccc- cop-27/. (Accessed 12 Feb. 2022).
3888

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Anon, 2022c. Global emissions |center for climate and energy solutions. https:
//www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/. (Accessed 08 Feb 2022).
Anon, 2022d. Minister: Egypt plans to incorporate green hydrogen during
2022 - Egypttoday. https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/3/111274/Minister-
Egypt-plans- to-incorporate- Green-Hydrogen-during- 2022. (Accessed 08
Feb. 2022).
Ayodele, T.R., Munda, J.L., 2019. The potential role of green hydrogen production
in the South Africa energy mix. J. Renew. Sustain. Energy 11 (4), http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.5089958.
Barhorst, N., 2016. Green hydrogen. In: 39th World Energy Engineering Con-
ference, WEEC 2016. Vol. 2. pp. 886–897, [Online]. Available: www.irena.
org.
Belward, A., et al., 2011. Renewable Energies in Africa. JRC Sci. Tech. Reports,
pp. 1–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.2788/1881.
Bermudez, J., Hasegawa, T., Bennett, S., 2020. Hydrogen – analysis - IEA, tracking
report, iea.org. [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/reports/hydrogen.
(Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Bessarabov, D., Van Niekerk, F., Van Der Merwe, F., Vosloo, M., North, B.,
Mathe, M., 2012. Hydrogen infrastructure within HySA national program in
South Africa: Road map and specific needs. In: Energy Procedia. Vol. 29. pp.
42–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2012.09.007.
Bhagwat, S.R.K., Olczak, M., 2020. Green hydrogen: bridging the energy transition
in Africa and Europe. In: Florence Sch. Regul. - Energy. http://dx.doi.org/10.
2870/126402.
Borschette, A., 2019. Green hydrogen opportunities in selected industrial
processes workshop summary report, no. June. http://dx.doi.org/10.2760/
634063.
Carmo, M., Fritz, D.L., Mergel, J., Stolten, D., 2013. A comprehensive review
on PEM water electrolysis. Int. J. Hydrogen Energy 38 (12), 4901–4934.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2013.01.151.
Commission, A.U., 2021. Union commission agenda 2063 the africa we want
first ten-year implementation plan, 2015. [Online]. Available: https://au.int/
en/agenda2063/overview. (Accessed 07 Jun. 2021).
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), 2020. Hydrogen and power-to-X. Ideas for a green
hydrogen strategy, position pap., no. April.
Dincer, I., 2012. Green methods for hydrogen production. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy
37 (2), 1954–1971. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.03.173.
Dutta, S., 2014. A review on production, storage of hydrogen and its utilization
as an energy resource. J. Ind. Eng. Chem. 20 (4), 1148–1156. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.jiec.2013.07.037.
Edkins, M., Marquard, A., Winkler, H., 2010. South Africa’s renewable energy
policy roadmaps, energy, no. June. pp. 1–28.
European comission, 2020. Committee and the committee of the regions a
hydrogen strategy for a climate-neutral europe. [Online]. Available: https:
//www.eu2018.at/calendar-events/political- events/BMNT-. (Accessed 10 Jun.
2021).
Ghaffari-Moghaddam, M., Hadi-Dabanlou, R., Khajeh, M., Rakhshanipour, M.,
Shameli, K., 2014. Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using plant
extracts. Korean J. Chem. Eng. 31 (4), 548–557. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
s11814-014- 0014-6, Feb. 17.
Gielen, D., Boshell, F., Saygin, D., Bazilian, M.D., Wagner, N., Gorini, R., 2019a.
The role of renewable energy in the global energy transformation. Energy
Strateg. Rev. 24, 38–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2019.01.006.
Gielen, D., Taibi, E., Miranda, R., 2019b. Hydrogen: a renewable energy
perspective.
Hybrit, https://www.hybritdevelopment.se/en/. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
I. Energy Agency, 2019. The future of hydrogen.
I Renewable Energy Agency and T Methanol Institute, 2021. Innovation outlook
renewable methanol in partnership with.
IRENA, 2014. A renewable energy roadmap report, irena, no. June. p. 173,
[Online]. Available: www.irena.org/remap.
IRENA, 2015. Africa 2030: Roadmap for a renewable energy future, REmap 2030
program. p. 72, [Online]. Available: www.irena.org/remap.
IRENA, 2019. Hydrogen: a renewable energy perspective, no. September.
Is, W., Hydrogen, C., 2021. Focus on hydrogen : a new energy frontier for
Africa as African economies continue to further their green ambitions, clean
hydrogen is increasingly viewed as an, no. January. pp. 1–10.
Jensterle, M., et al., 2019. STUDY the role of clean hydrogen in the future
energy systems of Japan and Germany. [Online]. Available: www.adelphi.de.
(Accessed 07 Jun. 2021).
Karekezi, S., Kithyoma, W., Initiative, E., 2003. Renewable energy in Africa:
Prospects and limits, work. In: African Energy Expert. Oper. NEPAD Energy
Initiat. June. pp. 2–4.
Kombargi, R., Hage, R., Anouti, Y., Elborai, S., 2020. The dawn of green hy-
drogen. p. 16, [Online]. Available: https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future- of-
hydrogen.
Kudria, S., Ivanchenko, I., Tuchynskyi, B., Petrenko, K., Karmazin, O., Riepkin, O.,
2021. Resource potential for wind-hydrogen power in Ukraine. Int. J. Hydrog.
Energy 46 (1), 157–168. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.09.211.
Lehmann, J., Luschtinetz, T., Gulden, J., 2018. Power to X - Green hydrogen for
electrical energy and fuel, for production and products. In: E3S Web Conf.
Vol. 70. pp. 10–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/20187001011.
Marchese, M., Giglio, E., Santarelli, M., Lanzini, A., 2020. Energy performance
of power-to-liquid applications integrating biogas upgrading, reverse water
gas shift, solid oxide electrolysis and Fischer–Tropsch technologies. Energy
Convers. Manag. X 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecmx.2020.100041.
Mas’ud, A.A., Vernyuy Wirba, A., Muhammad-Sukki, F., Mas’ud, I.A., Munir, A.B.,
Md Yunus, N., 2015. An assessment of renewable energy readiness in
Africa: Case study of Nigeria and Cameroon. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev.
51, 775–784. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.06.045, Jul. 20.
Messaoudi, D., et al., 2020. An overview of the photocatalytic water splitting
over suspended particles. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 44 (3), 850–866. http:
//dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.055.
Nazir, H., et al., 2020. Is the H2 economy realizable in the foreseeable future?
Part II: H2 storage, transportation, and distribution. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 45
(41), 20693–20708. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2020.05.241.
Nicita, A., Maggio, G., Andaloro, A.P.F., Squadrito, G., 2020. Green hydrogen as
feedstock: Financial analysis of a photovoltaic-powered electrolysis plant. Int.
J. Hydrog. Energy 45 (20), 11395–11408. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.
2020.02.062.
Nikolaidis, P., Poullikkas, A., 2017. A comparative overview of hydrogen produc-
tion processes. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 67, 597–611. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.044, Jan. 01.
Nouryon, B.P., 2019. Nouryon and port of rotterdam partner on green hydrogen
study, media release. https://www.portofrotterdam.com/en/news-and- press-
releases/bp-nouryon- and-port- of-rotterdam-partner- on-green- hydrogen-
study. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Patel, M., 2020. Green hydrogen : a potential export commodity in. [Online].
Available: www.tips.org.za.
Pattabathula, V., Richardson, J., 2016. Introduction to ammonia production.
Chem. Eng. Prog. 112 (9), 69–75, [Online]. Available: https://www.aiche.
org/resources/publications/cep/2016/september/introduction-ammonia-
production. (Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Population of Africa (2021) - Worldometer, https://www.worldometers.info/
world-population/africa- population/. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Posso, F., Siguencia, J., Narváez, R., 2020. Residual biomass-based hydrogen
production: Potential and possible uses in Ecuador. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy
45 (26), 13717–13725. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.09.235.
Project FLEXCHX, 2018. Flexible combined production of power, heat and
transport fuels from renewable energy sources. [Online]. Available: https:
//cordis.europa.eu/project/id/763919. (Accessed 19 Jun. 2021).
Schmidt, O., Gambhir, A., Staffell, I., Hawkes, A., Nelson, J., Few, S., 2017. Future
cost and performance of water electrolysis: An expert elicitation study. Int.
J. Hydrog. Energy 42 (52), 30470–30492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.
2017.10.045.
Siemens, 2019. Decarbonizing energy with green hydrogen : Technology
available and proven in production today. pp. 2–4, [Online]. Available:
https://assets.new.siemens.com/siemens/assets/api/uuid:390d0f48-499e-
4451-a3c2- faa30c5bafe7/version:1587541614/power-to- x-technical-paper-
siemens-short.pdf.
Sugawara, E., Nikaido, H., 2014. Properties of AdeABC and AdeIJK efflux systems
of acinetobacter baumannii compared with those of the AcrAB-TolC system
of escherichia coli. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 58 (12), 7250–7257.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AAC.03728-14.
Ufomba, H.U., 2020. The African union development agenda 2063: can Africa
get it right? Braz. J. Dev. 6 (8), 62626–62648. http://dx.doi.org/10.34117/
bjdv6n8-627.
UNFCCC, https://unfccc.int/. (Accessed 12 Feb. 2022).
Van Nuffel, L., Gorenstein Dedecca, J., Smit, T., Rademaekers, K., 2018. Sector
Coupling: How Can It Be Enhanced in the EU to Foster Grid Stability and
Decarbonise?, No. November. pp. 1–151.
Vandeputte, N., 2020. Rejuvenating EU democracy support in Africa: The
neighbourhood. In: Development and International Cooperation Instrument
(NDICI) As a Promising Framework for Action?
Vázquez others, F.V., 2018. Power-to-X technology using renewable electricity
and carbon dioxide from ambient air: SOLETAIR proof-of-concept and im-
proved process concept. J. CO2 Util. 28 (September), 235–246. http://dx.doi.
org/10.1016/j.jcou.2018.09.026.
Velazquez Abad, A., Dodds, P.E., 2020. Green hydrogen characterisation initia-
tives: Definitions, standards, guarantees of origin, and challenges. Energy
Policy 138, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2020.111300.
Verkehrswende, A., 2021. En route to Paris?. [Online]. Available: www.agora-
verkehrswende.de. (Accessed 18 Jun. 2021).
Wall, R.F., 1960. An Atlas of Africa. Vol. 36. No. 3.
3889

N. AbouSeada and T.M. Hatem Energy Reports 8 (2022) 3873–3890
Further reading
Timmerberg, S., 2020. Hydrogen supply from North Africa to the EU, no.
September.
Bessarabov, D., et al., 2017. South african hydrogen infrastructure (HySA infras-
tructure) for fuel cells and energy storage: Overview of a projects portfolio.
Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 42 (19), 13568–13588. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
ijhydene.2016.12.140.
Anon, 2021d. Hydrogen production: Natural gas reforming |department
of energy. https://www.energy.gov/eere/fuelcells/hydrogen-production-
natural-gas- reforming. (Accessed 18 Jun. 2021).
Anon, 2021e. Methanol applications |methanol institute. https://www.methanol.
org/applications/. (Accessed 10 Jun. 2021)
.
Ammonia, https://www.essentialchemicalindustry.org/chemicals/ammonia.html.
(Accessed 10 Jun. 2021).
Veziroˇ
glu, T.N., Şahin, S., 2008. 21St century’s energy: Hydrogen energy sys-
tem. Energy Convers. Manag. 49 (7), 1820–1831. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.
enconman.2007.08.015.
Sharma, S., Ghoshal, S.K., 2015. Hydrogen the future transportation fuel: From
production to applications. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 43, 1151–1158.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.11.093, Mar. 01.
Anon, 2021m. Green hydrogen and power to X silver bullet for decarbonizing
transport?. [Online]. Available: https://www.changing-transport.org/video-
power-to- x-.
3890