<article><p class="lead">Atome Energy has become the first company purely focused on green hydrogen and ammonia production to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, raising up to £9mn ($12mn) of funding at its initial public offering (IPO) on 30 December.</p><p>The offering on London's junior Aim exchange implies a market capitalisation of £26mn. Atome, which is based in Leeds in northern England, will now operate independently from its parent company, London-listed President Energy. </p><p>President Energy, an oil and gas firm active in Latin America, will continue to hold shares representing 27.9pc. Atome also notes that global trading firm Trafigura is one of its "significant shareholders".</p><p>The funding should allow Atome to finalise land and power purchase agreements for two planned green hydrogen and ammonia plants, a 30MW facility in Iceland and a 50MW facility in Paraguay. The company is due to make final investment decisions on the plants by mid-2022 and is aiming to build them by 2024. </p><p>The Icelandic plant will be powered by geothermal power from the north of the island and is adjacent to a cargo port, which would facilitate exports to EU markets or allow large ship fuelling should a market for ammonia-powered vessels develop. Atome plans to expand the Icelandic facility's capacity to 100MW in a second phase in 2025. </p><p>The company is targeting 5,500 t/yr of hydrogen production, 31,000 t/yr of ammonia and 44,000 t/yr of oxygen by-product in the first phase, rising to 19,000 t/yr, 105,000 t/yr and 150,000 t/yr, respectively, in the second.</p><p>The proposed Paraguay plant will have an initial 50MW capacity, rising to 250MW by 2026, supplied with hydroelectricity from the Itaipu dam, which is the world's second largest. Atome already has ties to Paraguay through its local director, who was head of Itaipu until 2018, and through its parent company. </p><p>The firm is aiming for 8,000 t/yr of hydrogen production at the Paraguay facility in the first phase, along with 46,000 t/yr of ammonia and 65,000 t/yr oxygen by-product. These will rise to 41,000 t/yr, 228,000t/yr and 326,000t/yr, respectively, in the second phase.</p><p>Atome has prioritised securing supplies of renewable baseload electricity in locations with domestic demand and access to international trading blocks. It has been less focused on investing in electrolyser technology, which will probably be cheaper by the time Atome is ready to begin production, according to President Energy's chief executive Peter Levine.</p><p>Levine said last year that the decision to separate the hydrogen and ammonia business from President Energy's core oil and gas activities was simple. "Hydrocarbon business and green business don't go together. It's a different investor audience," he said in October. "Furthermore, [President's] market cap is not reflective of our hydrocarbon business. We don't want our market cap to effectively deflate the value of what is a very exciting renewable business."</p><p>President Energy's share price fell by around a fifth on the day of Atome's IPO. </p><p class="bylines">By Aidan Lea</p></article>
