The South African oil company plans to start producing six tons of green hydrogen in 2023 at its Sasolburg facility by 2023, according to prospects put forward at the Africa Green Hydrogen Forum.

The company's vice president for climate change, Shamini Harrington, said that green hydrogen would be the result of combining 60 MW of renewable electricity and existing assets, including electrolyzer (decomposer by means of electric current) assets.

Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy to separate water, via an electrolyzer, into hydrogen and oxygen.

Hydrogen are established domestic value chains in industry and heavy-duty transport, as well as to provide back-up electricity generation.

The vice president said the group intends to leverage the projects to create reserves of green hydrogen for local demand, and position South Africa to participate in the global export market for clean energy and derived products.

At its largest infrastructure in Secunda, Sasol would seek to progressively reuse the facility to produce sustainable products, including sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

An initial 400 MW of renewable electricity would be developed to support the production of the green hydrogen needed to produce 15,000 tons per year of SAF through its Fischer-Tropsch process.

By 2040, according to Sasol, 15 GW could be deployed to produce SAF at an annual rate of 2.5 million tons.

In parallel, Sasol would invest in greenfield projects in South Africa and in Namibia's "solar belt," including within a special economic zone to be developed at Boegoebaai in the Northern Cape and 20 km south of the Namibian border.

Calling it a "lighthouse project," Harrington said Boegoebaai could emerge as a green hydrogen product center, capable of producing 400,000 tons per year.

To develop a hub of this scale would require an investment of $10 billion, including 9 GW of renewable energy generation.

Earlier this month, the Namibian government announced the selection of a bidder for the phased development of a $9.4 billion green hydrogen project to be developed in the Tsau/Khaeb National Park near the coastal town of Luderitz in southern Namibia.