Recent developments
Ammonia logistics accelerate
Ammonia supply chains advanced from pilots to scalable logistics as Yara Clean Ammonia secured long-term access to dual-fuel, ice-class medium gas carriers, cutting freight costs per tonne and de-risking low-emission volumes into Northern Europe. On the demand-enabling side, Yara Eyde entered construction as the first ammonia-powered container ship on the Oslo–Porsgrunn–Bremerhaven–Rotterdam route, signaling credible near-term bunkering and handling capabilities. Together, these moves compress supply-chain risk premia, improve asset utilization, and strengthen the business case for clean ammonia as both a hydrogen carrier and maritime fuel.
Materials and finance
Upstream capital and materials innovation converged as Evonik issued a €500 million green hybrid bond to fund Next Generation Solutions, including anion exchange membranes that directly lower electrolyzer balance-of-plant costs. On the hardware side, Stargate Hydrogen adopted BASF’s Ultrason S polymer frames for alkaline stacks, replacing nickel components to reduce mass, simplify injection-molded integration, and sustain performance under high pressure and alkaline conditions. The combined effect is lower capex, improved reliability, and faster manufacturability—key to closing the parity gap for green hydrogen in industrial and mobility applications.
Backbone infrastructure grows
Europe accelerated molecules infrastructure as the Delta Rhine Corridor began its public procedure for hydrogen and CO2 pipelines linking Rotterdam to Germany, anchoring cross-border offtake and sequestration pathways. In Germany, coal-to-hydrogen repowering advanced with demolition at Uniper’s Scholven site to make way for an H2-ready gas plant. Downstream, green molecules reached end-use: Lhyfe supplied renewable hydrogen for the GROHW project in Deventer, while ramping a 200 MW Delfzijl plant set to tap the European backbone—tightening the loop between production, transmission, and industrial loads.
Portfolios recalibrated
Project selectivity sharpened as Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam halted its biofuels facility after a competitiveness review, while reaffirming capital toward CCS (Porthos), renewable hydrogen (Holland Hydrogen 1), and electrification at Moerdijk. The signal to peers: prioritize assets with advantaged feedstock, infrastructure proximity, and policy-aligned revenue visibility, and lean on trading to bridge short-term supply-demand imbalances in low-carbon fuels.
Gas and CCS bridge
Transitional molecules underpinned hydrogen’s rollout. The Abadi LNG Project in Indonesia moved into FEED with integrated CCS, pairing regional gas monetization with carbon management. In the U.S., the Texas LNG Brownsville terminal secured a 20-year offtake with Gunvor, supporting financing toward FID under a turnkey EPC. In Iraq, the Gas Growth Integrated Project in Iraq advanced seawater substitution and midstream to capture flared gas, delivering grid power without routine flaring. For chemicals, these developments stabilize energy and feedstock availability, create CO2 transport/storage sinks, and enable blue-to-green pathways as electrolytic capacity scales.