Colombia’s Ecopetrol, the country’s state-owned oil company, is set to build the largest green hydrogen plant in Latin America. The new plant, which will be capable of producing 800 tons of green hydrogen per year, will position the company as one of the world’s leaders in the generation of clean energy.
The plant, which will be built at Colombia’s existing Cartagena Refinery with an investment of close to US$28.5 million, will include a five megawatt hydrogen electrolyzer, making it the most powerful in the region. The project will include, among other elements, design work, facilities construction, commissioning, and operation and maintenance of the equipment required to produce green hydrogen with a purity of 99.97%.
The plant is expected to become operational in the first half of 2026. It will then begin to hydro-treat fuels, that is, via the use of a 1% hydrogen mixture.
Colombia’s Ecopetrol to build Latin America’s largest green hydrogen plant
Upon completion, Ecopetrol’s green hydrogen plant will become Latin America’s largest industrial scale low-emission hydrogen plant, according to world rankings issued by the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Construction of the plant will also consolidate Ecopetrol as a leader in the development of green hydrogen. The plant will have Colombia’s largest installed capacity of electrolyzers, thanks to three electrolysis pilots that it has been implementing since 2022.
According to Ecopetrol, the complex will operate with renewable energy from the Solar Farm of the Cartagena Refinery, which has a capacity of 22 megawatts. The green hydrogen generated will be integrated into the refinery’s current capacity to hydrotreat fuels.
This will enable the reduction of the equivalent of up to 7,700 tons of CO2 per year, This equates to the total emissions generated by 1,650 vehicles over the course of a year.
The plant will have an installed capacity 100 times greater than that currently in operation by the Ecopetrol Group. It will draw on technical, financial, commercial and business knowledge from the company’s Hydrogen Strategic Plan and will leverage green hydrogen projects on a larger scale as per the framework of the company’s 2040 Strategy.
“Producing 800 tons of green hydrogen at a competitive cost with the state-of-the-art technology of our refinery is possible thanks to the fact that we had already announced the start-up of our solar farm in Cartagena,” said Ricardo Roa, president of Ecopetrol.
Colombia’s Ecopetrol and the energy transition
Despite criticism from Colombia’s right-wing political opposition, the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro has made energy transition and the fight against climate change a major priority for his administration.
Petro is committed to advancing Colombia’s energy transition away from fossil fuels, such as oil, towards less polluting energy sources. Ecopetrol, Colombia’s most important company, is playing a leading role in this transition.
At the company’s most recent Board of Directors meetings, it was announced that it was allocating between 24 and 28 billion pesos (approximately US$5.3 to 6.2 billion) of its 2025 budget “to strengthen[ing] the energy transition.”
The company says that its low-emission hydrogen business line is expected to generate between US$400 million and US$485 million of Ebitda per year by 2040. Ebitda is a financial indicator that indicates a company’s earnings before the deduction of payments and costs such as taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization.
Colombia will require 1.3 million tons of green hydrogen by 2040
The Colombian government estimates that the country’s demand for hydrogen could reach 1.3 million tons per year by 2040, driven mainly by mobility and industrial requirements.
With this needs in mind, Ecopetrol’s 2040 Strategy, “Energy that Transforms,” aims to produce up to one million tons of low-carbon hydrogen (40% green, 30% blue, 30% white) by 2040. Of this amount, 60% will be for domestic consumption and 40% for export.
As part of this strategy, Ecopetrol aims to install one to three gigawatts of electrolyzer capacity; produce 50 thousand tons of blue hydrogen; and introduce a fleet of between 2,500 and 3,500 light and heavy vehicles with hydrogen cells.
Green hydrogen is emerging as one of the key players in the transition to a more sustainable energy future. Produced by electrolysis of water using electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind power, the fuel is completely carbon-free.
Unlike gray hydrogen, which is obtained from fossil fuels and generates high levels of carbon dioxide, green hydrogen offers a clean solution for decarbonizing sectors that are difficult to electrify, such as heavy industry and long-distance transport.
The process works by splitting water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using an electric current. If this electricity comes from renewable energies, the environmental impact is practically zero, which is why it is rapidly becoming a crucial element in the energy transition process of most countries.