Shell Brasil, Raízen, Hytron, University of São Paulo (USP) and SENAI CETIQT signed a cooperation agreement for the development of plants for the production of renewable H₂ from ethanol. The partnership focuses on validating the technology through the construction of two plants sized to produce 5 kg/h of H₂ and, later, the implementation of a plant 10 times larger, at 44.5 kg/h.

The agreement also includes a H₂ refueling station on the USP campus, in the city of São Paulo. One of the buses used by students and visitors to Cidade Universitária will stop using diesel and traditional internal combustion engines to start using H₂ produced from ethanol and engines equipped with fuel cells. With the start of operations scheduled for 2023, the initiative emerges as a low carbon solution for heavy transport, including trucks and buses, with the first H₂ ethanol station in Brazil and in the world.

H₂ from ethanol will be produced in an innovative way with the biofuel supplied by Raízen and the technology developed and manufactured by Hytron, which currently belongs to the German Neuman & Esser Group, with support from the SENAI Institute for Innovation in Biosynthetics and Fibers from SENAI CETIQT, with financing from Shell Brasil.

“We are excited to see that a project that started as a dream of students within the university now becomes a high-impact solution for the energy transition in the country and the world,” said Hytron CEO Marcelo Veneroso.

H₂ is predominantly used in the chemical industry and is produced in industrial units near refineries from natural gas. In the future, there is an expectation that H₂ produced from renewable electricity, such as solar and wind, will play an important role in the decarbonization of various industrial and heavy transport sectors. However, the transport of this product is complex, as it requires compression or liquefaction for storage in cylinders or trucks, making logistics more expensive. In this scenario, the production of hydrogen via ethanol conversion represents an advance in the availability of renewable fuels through a new technological route for the expansion of sustainable solutions in the country and in the world.

“This initiative is a pioneer in the large-scale production of renewable hydrogen from ethanol,” summarized Julio Romano Meneghini, executive and scientific director of the Research Center for Greenhouse Gas Innovation (RCGI) at USP.

“Local, decentralized, low-investment production of renewable hydrogen through ethanol reform is an interesting alternative for sectors such as heavy transport, which have a significant growth perspective in the use of this solution, whose availability and scalability are essential. In addition to heavy transport, we are currently looking for partners who are interested in applying this technology for the decarbonization of other sectors,” said Mateus Lopes, director of Energy Transition and Investments at Raízen.

Together with Shell, the company will be responsible for leading the development of the H ₂ market from ethanol. Through this agreement for the production of green hydrogen, the companies begin a new stage in the production of renewables, contributing to the decarbonization of the economy and expanding their product portfolios.