Sharjah waste management company Bee’ah plans to build the region’s first waste-to-hydrogen project with UK-based Chinook Sciences.
The project, part of a $180m gasification undertaking in the emirate by the two companies to turn waste into energy, will cater to growing demand for a green version of the alternative fuel in the region.
It will include a plant and a fuel station for vehicles that run on hydrogen.
Oil-exporting countries in the Middle East plan to produce hydrogen for export in the future.
The UAE is drawing up a comprehensive road map to tap into the clean fuel's potential.
Globally, the size of the hydrogen industry is expected to hit $183 billion by 2023, up from $129bn in 2017, according to Fitch Solutions.
French investment bank Natixis estimates that investment in hydrogen will exceed $300bn by 2030.
State entities Adnoc, Mubadala and ADQ formed an
alliance
this year to develop a hydrogen economy in the UAE.
Green hydrogen will be cheaper than natural gas by 2050 as the cost of solar power continues to decline, according to BloombergNEF research.
"Green hydrogen will be a vital pillar of our future energy landscape and Bee’ah has been looking into this market for some time now with Chinook, in alignment with our long-term strategy to develop new, sustainable energy solutions,” said chairman Salim Al Owais.
The company plans to support the UAE's hydrogen economy, energy diversification and decarbonisation efforts, he said.
The addition of a fuel station adjacent to the plant will overcome challenges related to costly transport fees, the company said.
The station will use the green hydrogen produced by the waste-to-hydrogen plant from non-recyclable plastic waste and waste wood.
The clean alternative fuel will then be fed into the filling station for hydrogen-powered vehicles.
"Bee’ah has always recognised the value of energy recovery from waste and, through this new project, we aim to support a circular economy across [several] fronts throughout the region,” said group chief executive Khaled Al Huraimel.
Earlier this month, Dubai inaugurated its first green hydrogen plant at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, the site of the UAE’s biggest solar plant. The pilot project was developed by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, Expo 2020 and Germany’s Siemens Energy.
It aims to demonstrate how to produce hydrogen from solar power, store it and re-electrify it.
The green variant of the fuel is produced entirely from renewable sources.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
