At the latest Global Free Zones of the Year awards, ZPE Ceará received an honourable mention for its green hydrogen hub. In addition, the hub, based at Pecem Port near Fortaleza, had its official presentation on the international stage last week in the Dominican Republic. Between them, Pecem and the green hydrogen hub are unique in Brazil and a leading light at global level.
Honourable mention for ZPE Ceará
fDi Intelligence, part of the Financial Times, presented its awards for Global Free Zones of the Year 2022 in early October. The Free Zone at Pecem Port in Ceará received an honourable mention in the list, an accolade awarded on the back of the port’s up-and-coming green hydrogen hub.
According to the judges, ZPE Ceará stood out for “accelerating hydrogen adoption”. They highlighted the Free Zone’s approach to business that “combines incubation with the reliability of creating clusters for horizontally and vertically integrated industries”. They also praised the way in which Pecem Port has sought know-how from the Port of Rotterdam.
Official presentation of Pecem green hydrogen hub
For its part, ZPE Ceará took its green hydrogen hub to the international arena in early December and officially presented it to the world stage at the Latin American Congress on Free Zones. The President of the entity, Eduardo Neves, detailed the project and its close association with the Port of Rotterdam, poised to become the largest distributor of green hydrogen in Europe.
Neves highlighted Ceará’s potential for green hydrogen production, expected to reach 1 million tonnes in 2030. The amount is the equivalent of 25% of Rotterdam’s import demand.
“Green hydrogen has the potential to revolutionise our current energy systems, taking them along a cleaner, safer and more sustainable route,” said Neves. “We’re talking job and income creation and a whole chain combining technology and sustainability to help generate huge socioeconomic development in the whole region.”
International presence
The Latin American Congress on Free Zones is one of the most important for the sector. Some 25 countries in Latin America have free zones that employ more than 1 million people and house over 10,200 companies.
ZPE Ceará has been operating for nine years and was the first to start operations in Brazil. Its green hydrogen hub already has 24 Memorandums of Understanding, together with two pre-contracts with multinational companies. At the Congress, ZPE Ceará was also voted one of the four most innovative free zone projects in Latin America.
(Sources: fDi, Ceará government)
