The French energy major has signed a collaboration agreement with renewable energy company Masdar and Siemens Energy under which the three companies will co-develop a demonstrator plant project, to be established at Masdar City, Abu Dhabi’s flagship sustainable urban development.

According to Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO, Masdar: ‘The demonstrator plant will help to establish the commercial viability of green hydrogen as an essential decarbonised fuel of the future, and will support Abu Dhabi’s development as a green hydrogen hub. While the hydrogen market is still at a comparatively early stage, we firmly believe that by working together with international partners on projects such as this, we can help the hydrogen market develop its full potential.’

Masdar announced last year that it was collaborating with Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, Etihad Airways, Lufthansa Group, Khalifa University of Science and Technology, Siemens Energy and Marubeni Corporation on the demonstrator plant initiative. Having joined the initiative, the aim now is that TotalEnergies will offer its expertise in SAF production, offtake and supply the partner airlines.

Since January 2021, the partners in the initiative have completed a range of evaluations on technology suppliers, feasibility studies and conceptual designs, while working closely with regulators on compliance issues. The aim is to proceed to the front-end engineering design (FEED) stage later this year.

By leveraging their respective areas of expertise across the energy spectrum, and their local and global market reach, the co-developers believe that the demonstrator project can pave the way to commercial production of SAF, helping to reduce production costs and making it commercially viable.