Newly established green hydrogen production company Atome expects to generate its first revenues in 2023, the firm said in its inaugural annual results statement.

Atome listed on the AIM branch of the London Stock Exchange in December after being spun off from independent oil and gas company President Energy with a £9mn ($11.2mn) fundraise at 80p per share.

“In the short period since the IPO, while not losing focus on our core projects, we have signed a world-class power-purchase agreement [PPA] for 60MW in Paraguay as well as creating our mobility division and ordered our first electrolyser,” says Atome chair Peter Levine.

“All this means in 2023 we expect to be generating our first revenues ahead of expectation at the time of the IPO and are advancing our production plans generally.”

The firm signed the 60MW PPA with national utility Ande to power its green hydrogen project in Paraguay and has now begun commissioning the full Feed study. It anticipates taking FID on the project in the second half of 2022 and wants to complete the facility three years after that.

£9mn – Amount raised in firm’s IPO

The firm is in negotiations with offtakers. Villeta is an industrial centre with high levels of ammonia demand. And the mobility division aims to sell and deliver its first hydrogen for heavy transport use in Paraguay by the middle of next year.

The electrolyser order referenced by Levine is for a second, larger supply project in Paraguay that will produce more than 200,000t/yr of ammonia by 2027. The project will be powered by the 250MW Itaipu dam hydropower project.

“Atome expects to sell and deliver its first hydrogen for transport use in Paraguay before the end of the first half next year with already extensive end-market interest in our mobility project together with government support,” says CEO Oliver Muscat.

The firm is also developing a 100MW green ammonia project in Iceland to be powered by geothermal energy.

“Our Iceland project is also progressing in tandem with our work in Paraguay and is also now planned to come on-line mid-decade,” says Muscat.

The firm now intends to develop further projects in other international jurisdictions, given projections of ongoing high ammonia prices.

“The increase in hydrocarbon and fertiliser prices, together with the international emphasis on environmentally necessary green commodities, has provided a very fertile end-market for Atome’s planned production,” says Muscat.

Prices of ammonia have risen fivefold over the last two years to $1500/t on the back of higher gas prices.

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Author: Tom Young