Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) has decided to cancel a planned project to build a green hydrogen plant in Abu Dhabi that would have supplied up to 100MW of renewable hydrogen to local steelmaker Emsteel for green steel production.

After contractors submitted bids for the project last year, Masdar asked bidders in the first quarter of this year to extend the validity of their proposals until the end of August to allow “more time to study and evaluate bids”, according to one source.

However, Masdar issued a notification to all bidders on 1 August stating that it had decided to cancel the project, sources told MEED.

Contractors that submitted bids for the Masdar green hydrogen project included:

• Envision (China)
• Larsen & Toubro (India)
• PowerChina (China)
• Samsung E&A (South Korea)
• Sinopec (China)

Masdar did not respond to MEED’s request for comment on the information.

In its current steelmaking process, Emsteel uses hydrogen produced by steam reforming of natural gas as a reducing agent to extract iron from iron ore. The core objective of Masdar’s planned project was to install a 100MW electrolyser at Emsteel’s main manufacturing hub in Musaffah, Abu Dhabi, to supply green hydrogen for future clean steel production.

Masdar initiated work on the project in 2024 by awarding a front-end engineering and design (feed) contract to locally based NT Energies, a joint venture of Abu Dhabi’s NMDC Energy and France-based Technip Energies.

Masdar then sought proposals last year for engineering, procurement, construction, demolition (if needed for brownfield activities), pre-commissioning, commissioning, start-up, and two years of operations and maintenance (extendable up to 20 years) at the planned facility.

Contractors submitted bids by the end of the year, according to sources.

The project involved green hydrogen production using alkaline water electrolysis, with a total installed electrolyser capacity of 100MW.

The scope of work involved building electrolyser stacks and modules, hydrogen separation and compression units, associated utilities and storage systems, and electrical, instrumentation and control systems.

It also included tie-ins to pre-defined interface points, including (but not limited to):

• a grid power supply connection to the MOSF substation in Musaffah that exists within the Emsteel complex and is operated by Taqa Transmission
• a water supply connection to a nearby Taqa Distribution network

Supporting infrastructure included a substation, a motor control centre, and ancillary plant buildings and facilities.

Masdar’s planned 100MW electrolyser project at the Emsteel facility would have represented a step up from a previous pilot project by the two Abu Dhabi-owned companies.

The partners inaugurated a pilot green hydrogen plant at Emsteel’s manufacturing complex in Musaffah in October 2024. It incorporates a 2.1MW electrolyser and is designed to support the production of up to 5,000 tonnes of green steel a year.

This made Emsteel the only steelmaker in the Middle East to use green hydrogen to produce green steel on a pilot basis.

“Sustainability is central to Emsteel’s innovation, competitiveness and long-term growth. Today, approximately 89% of our steel business electricity consumption comes from clean sources, and our steel carbon emissions intensity is around 40% lower than the World Steel Association global average,” Michael Rion, chief commercial officer of Emirates Steel, part of Emsteel Group, told MEED in a recent interview.

READ THE AUGUST 2026 MEED BUSINESS REVIEW – click here to view PDF

Saudi Arabia builds for the global stage; Rising uncertainty creates fresh set of challenges in the Maghreb; Gulf banks remain robust in the face of geopolitical tensions.

Distributed to senior decision-makers in the region and around the world, the August 2026 edition of MEED Business Review includes: