Green hydrogen projects in Malaysia worth billions of dollars to be signed off this week: report

Development on three production projects and common infrastructure on the island of Borneo is currently under way

A schematic for the H2biscus project in Sarawak, Malaysia.
A schematic for the H2biscus project in Sarawak, Malaysia.Photo: SAMSUNG ENGINEERING
SEDC Energy, a developer owned by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, is set to finalise agreements for $4.2bn in green hydrogen projects this week, according to reporting by financial newspaper The Edge.

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The company is developing a hydrogen hub in the Bintulu district of Sarawak, located on the island of Borneo, with two large-scale production projects lined up.

The first, H2biscus, is a 150,000-tonnes-a-year facility that SEDC Energy is working on with a consortium of Korean companies — Samsung Engineering, Lotte Chemical and Posco — with volumes of hydrogen to be converted to ammonia for export to South Korea. Front-end engineering and design is under way, with a final investment decision (FID) scheduled for the end of this year.

The second, H2ornbill, would produce 90,000 tonnes of H2 per year, with FID due in 2025. This project is also being developed by a consortium, in this case with Japanese companies Sumitomo and Eneos, with an eye toward export via the liquid organic hydrogen carrier methylcyclohexane (MCH).

Both of these projects would also draw on hydropower, which supplies more than two thirds of Sarawak’s electricity, with first production in 2027.

SEDC Energy has today announced a third partnership with Gentari, a clean-energy subsidiary of state oil company Petronas, to jointly build common infrastructure for the two production plants.

Meanwhile, SEDC is also reportedly planning to spend 400-500m Malaysian ringgit ($83m-105m) on building a 1,900 tonnes-a-year green hydrogen project and refuelling station next year in the state capital of Kuching, as part of the Rembus Depot for Autonomous Rapid Transit (ART) trams.

Sarawak’s first fuel-cell ART vehicles — which follow double dashed lines painted on the road using the same Lidar technology as autonomous Tesla cars — began a three-month road test in September last year, with 38 trams due to be delivered in late 2025 by a subsidiary of China’s state railway firm CRRC.

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Published 26 February 2024, 10:38Updated 26 February 2024, 10:38