An international consortium led by a German company signed a $34 billion deal to produce “green hydrogen” in Mauritania. [Consortium signs $34 bln MoU for hydrogen project ... - Nasdaq – synopsis Semafor]
Total investment in the project equals more than three times Mauritania’s yearly GDP. The project will have a production capacity of up to 8 million tons of green hydrogen annually, equivalent to about 25% of the current hydrogen production of China, the world’s largest producer. Green hydrogen uses renewable energy to split H molecules out of water, but largely remains prohibitively expensive, with most hydrogen today currently “gray” — derived from fossil fuels, without carbon capture — or to a lesser extent “blue,” which utilizes carbon-capture technology.