Green hydrogen developer CWP Global has revealed plans to use H2 from its 30GW Aman project in Mauritania to produce green iron for export to Europe.
CWP’s local subsidiary, Aman Green Energy, has signed a memorandum of understanding with the West African country’s national mining company, Snim (Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière) to collaborate on a potential new hub for direct reduced iron.
The hub would use power, water and hydrogen from the Aman project to convert raw iron ore into millions of tonnes of hot briquetted iron (HBI) — a form of direct reduced iron (DRI) — that would be “mainly” exported to Europe for the production of green steel (see panel below).
“The project could pave the way for Mauritania to become a world-leading producer and exporter of green HBI,” says CWP.
In February, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen visited Mauritania and called for the country to produce its own green iron and steel for export to Europe.
CWP plans to build 30GW of wind and solar power at its Aman project in northwest Mauritania, and recently completed 24 months of resource measurements at its 8,500sq km project site, which confirmed its “outstanding” winds and sunshine.
“The project could produce 1.7 million tonnes of green hydrogen each year, enabling its application to production of various hydrogen derivatives for offtake, including green ammonia (for fertilizers and/or long-range shipping fuel), green DRI/HBI for making green steel products, and/or liquid hydrogen,” the company states.
“CWP aims to have the project FEED-ready [front-end engineering and design] by late 2025 and is working towards first production by the end of the decade.”
SNIM produced and exported about 13 million tonnes of iron ore in the last fiscal year, generating roughly $1.25bn in revenue, and the Mauritanian government plans to increase this to around 30 million tonnes a year over the next decade.
