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Coffee with: Michael Stusch, Executive Chairman and CEO of H2 Enterprises Group: Stusch (LinkedIn) founded H2 Enterprises Group in 2010 to develop a cost-effective, emission-free method to produce and store clean hydrogen using a Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC), leveraging existing infrastructure for transportation.
H2 Enterprises’ plans to build a USD 3 bn waste-to-hydrogen facility in Egypt’s East Port Said are moving forward after the firm got preliminary approval by the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) for the development of a 1 GW LOHC Hydrogen Hub — the first of its kind in the world. The hydrogen plant will be fed with 4 mn tons of organic waste and non-recyclable plastic per year sourced from the Mediterranean entrance to the Suez Canal.
H2 is also looking into developing a USD 1.4 bn waste-to-hydrogen facility in Oman with a capacity to produce 67k tons of green hydrogen annually. The project — which will be developed in partnership with Madayn — includes the construction of a 300 MW solar station and 70 MW of electrical storage, to power the conversion of up to 1 mn tons of municipal solid waste each year, which will eventually be expanded to handle 4 mn tons a year. The waste will be sourced from waste management operators and mined from existing landfills.
We sat down (virtually) with Stusch to discuss hydrogen production tech, the company’s current projects, and what support the hydrogen industry needs ahead of COP29.
Edited excerpts of our conversation follow:
Enterprise: H2 Enterprises is a key player in the hydrogen sector. What are the distinctive contributions the company makes into the low-carbon hydrogen sector?
Michael Stusch: We have developed tech to produce hydrogen from waste at less than half the levelized cost of producing hydrogen from solar. We can do this in huge quantities, producing a super green hydrogen. It’s actually cleaner than green hydrogen because we also reduce country waste in parallel.
We want to roll out the tech worldwide and have a strategic partner for that. I cannot tell you who the partners are yet, but they are big names. We really want to make the energy transition from oil to hydrogen as soon as possible.
E: What policy measures or regulatory frameworks — both global and national — do you think are necessary to further incentivize investment and innovation in the hydrogen sector?
MS: We are working on one important thing: the certification of hydrogen which can be done through different players around the world, led by [certification provider and hydrogen engineer] Bureau Veritas here in Dubai.
We need hydrogen not to be labeled with these color codes anymore, but instead have a CO2 index that identifies how much CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere across the hydrogen supply chain, including the end destination where it’s used. This needs to be a standard worldwide. European countries are amongst those that would benefit from this because it’s currently unclear what is certified and what is not.
E: What innovative technologies or breakthroughs is H2 Enterprises currently developing?
MS: We have developed the technology to produce hydrogen from waste very efficiently and at half of the cost in factories that we have designed ourselves. Our factories are designed using 20-foot containers for mass production. We can easily set up a plant within two years, and probably even faster than that in the future. The first one will be located in Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE, first announced at COP28. Construction will begin this year and the plant will be ready for operation at the end of 2026.
We’re also developing tech to release hydrogen from Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) in 19-inch racks — which we also mass produce. You can put these racks in your house for heating and cooling your house, and eventually power your entire house with hydrogen.
E: How is H2 Enterprises positioning itself to capitalize on opportunities in the transportation, industry, and power generation fields?
MS: For the transportation industry, we have big partners that will be announced soon. The partners are already transporting oil and they can use anchors and transport LOHC without needing to change anything. So it’s not like ammonia. We don’t need to freeze it down like liquid hydrogen or compress it to transport or store. It can be transported under normal temperatures the same way we transport oil now.
For the power generation, these waste-to-hydrogen plants can produce hydrogen very cost effectively. We can convert coal power plants into hydrogen power plants by situating waste-to-hydrogen plants nearby and retrofitting the coal facilities to a hydrogen one instead. We have projects like this in the pipeline. Nothing has started yet, but we are currently talking to many players in different countries.
E: Could you give us any more details on your other projects in the region?
MS: Our Oman hydrogen project was announced one and a half years ago, but there have been changes in Oman. We are now in talks with new [stakeholders] so we need to renew our agreements. But, we have other projects in Egypt and here in the UAE.
Moving to Dubai a few years ago was strategic. This region is becoming the center for new sustainable technologies and financial activities related to sustainability. Dubai is emerging as the global hub for energy transition, which is why we chose to base our operations here.
E: What outcomes does your company want to see from COP29?
MS: What we need is easier finance, so the tech can be built immediately. The whole process to get to the financial closing takes too long, and it is the biggest problem. We have some ideas that are also coming up, but we need big amounts of funds and investments, and we need them as fast as possible — not at the rate we are currently at. This is the most important [outcome] that should come out of COP29: for financial institutions worldwide to understand that we need to move forward much quicker.
