French global major energy group TotalEnergies has joined United Arab Emirates (UAE) sustainable and clean energy company Masdar and Germany’s Siemens Energy, in a project to use green hydrogen to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The three groups signed the collaboration agreement on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) 2022.

The partners will now co-develop a green hydrogen production demonstrator plant. This will be situated Abu Dhabi’s sustainable urban development flagship project, Masdar City.

Masdar actually announced the project last year, before ADSW 2021. In addition to Siemens Energy, the UAE company announced at that time that the project would also involve the Abu Dhabi Department of Energy, the Marubeni Corporation of Japan, Etihad Airways, the Lufthansa group and the Khalifa University of Science and Technology.

“[This] signing and the participation of TotalEnergies as a co-developer represents a significant step forward for this exciting project,” affirmed Masdar CEO Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi. “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 and it will really take off in the years to come.”

“We are very pleased to partner with Masdar and Siemens Energy to meet the challenge of decarbonising air transport through sustainable aviation fuel from green hydrogen,” stated TotalEnergies SVP: Refining and Petrochemicals Africa, Middle East and Asia François Good. “In this project, TotalEnergies brings its expertise in renewable energy as well as SAF manufacturing and marketing advanced sustainable fuel production with the aim of acting directly on the carbon intensity of the energy products used by our customers. This is in-line with our strategy of building a multi-energy company with the ambition to get to net zero by 2050 together with society.”

“Green hydrogen has a vital role to play in the decarbonisation of many industries, with the aviation sector presenting an excellent opportunity,” pointed out Siemens Energy MD Middle East and UAE Dietmar Siersdorfer. “With deep expertise in electrolysers and plant integration we understand that collaboration is vital to success. We’re excited to have a longstanding and strong partner such as TotalEnergies bring its expertise to help accelerate this landmark project.”