Construction begins on the Haru Oni project
The construction works have been kicked off through an online ceremony and were attended by delegates from Stuttgart and Punta Arenas.
The construction work has formally been kicked off on the Haru Oni project at an online ceremony today (10th September),
The Haru Oni project is the largest of its kind in Latin America and one of the first worldwide. It will produce carbon-neutral fuels using wind energy.
The US$ 51 million Haru Oni project will use renewable energy and CO2 extracted from the atmosphere to produce 350 tonnes/year of methanol and 130,000 litres/year of eFuel by the end of 2022. The production capacity will increase to around 55 million litres/year of eFuel by 2024, and around 550 million litres/year by 2026.
The Haru Oni project will use renewable energy to obtain green hydrogen from water through electrolysis. The hydrogen will then combine with CO2 (removed from the atmosphere by direct air capture) to produce methanol, where a part of the methanol produced will be converted into synthetic gasoline.
The ceremony was attended by regional and national officials as well as executives from Enel Green Power, Empresas Gasco, Enap Porsche, Siemens Energy and Exxon Mobil.
César Norton, HIF President, said that the project can radically change current sources of energy and will provide Chile with the opportunity to export clean energy to the world.
At the ceremony, the Chilean Minister of Energy and Mining, Juan Carlos Jobet, highlighted the great potential of the hydrogen industry for the country and reiterated his government commitment to address the climate crisis and the opportunity to achieve sustainable development. The minister said, “The success of Haru Oni will be the success of Chile.”
The DG for Energy Policy at the German Ministry of Economy and Energy, Thorsten Herdan, commented that the Haru Oni project is also the beginning of international collaboration on hydrogen and a public-private alliance.
