Officials at the signing for the waste to energy plant

Sharjah's Beeah Group is partnering with the UK’s Chinook Sciences and Japanese Air Water to build the Middle East’s first waste to hydrogen plant in Sharjah.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in Japan to form a consortium that will advance progress on the plant that will transform waste wood and plastic into fuel-cell grade green hydrogen.

The project will gain from Beeah’s expertise in waste management and material recovery, Chinook Sciences patented RODECS pyrolysis and gasification process, and Air Water’s Hydrogen Refinement technology.

The scope of works includes an on-site green hydrogen dispensing station capable of fuelling several vehicles. To realise this, the plant will need to produce fuel cell grade hydrogen, which will be made possible with Air Water’s Hydrogen Refinement technology.

Syngas produced from the Rodecs pyrolysis and gasification process from Chinook Sciences will be fed into the hydrogen refinement system, resulting in fuel cell grade green hydrogen. Specifically, the grade hydrogen will be produced for PEM fuel cells at ISO14687 or SAEJ2719 standards.

Khaled Al Huraimel, Group CEO of Beeah Group, said: "For Beeah, the waste-to-hydrogen plant is an innovation that will enable us to eliminate the challenge of certain types of waste wood and plastic, while also producing fuel cell grade hydrogen, which is a solution for emissions-free mobility of the future. The project aligns with the UAE’s Hydrogen Leadership roadmap and demonstrates a feasible, scalable and sustainable approach to green hydrogen production."

Air Water’s engineering division based in New Jersey, US, has been working with Chinook Sciences since 2004 on the active pyrolysis technology in the multi-patented Rodecs process, which is a universal thermal treatment system. Air Water and Chinook Sciences have an intricate knowledge of the conversion processes in Rodecs, which will inform the success of the Waste to Hydrogen project with Beeah Group.

Dr Rifat Chalabi, Chairman and Co-Founder of Chinook Sciences, said: "In order to achieve high quality fuel cell grade hydrogen from the Waste to Hydrogen plant, Hydrogen Refinement will be a critical step. Air Water provides contaminant reduction solutions at a high level of quality and, through previous collaboration, is also closely aware of the processes involved in Rodecs pyrolysis and gasification process.

"Air Water’s Hydrogen Refinement can be applied to various types of syngas that we will produce from different types of feedstocks, enabling us to effectively produce high quality fuel cell hydrogen from both unrecyclable wood and plastic waste. Leveraging Air Water’s technologies, I look forward to demonstrating a new model for green hydrogen production alongside Beeah Group."