Ammonia energy in the APAC region

What’s the narrative?

When it comes to ammonia energy & Australia, the persistent theme for a few years now has been exports, exports, exports…and more exports…and then more exports on top of that. This is not surprising: Australia already has a reputation as a resource exporting giant, sending minerals, fossil fuels and other extractive products all over the world. But, as flagged by Western Australia’s Hydrogen Industry Minister the Hon. Alannah MacTiernan at last year’s conference, a domestic hydrogen & ammonia industry presents the opportunity for her state (and Australia in general) to move on from a “dig and ship” mentality. Clean fuels and a massive build-out of renewable energy could power industry, manufacturing & transport in Australia for years to come.

There’s also Australia’s world-leading mining equipment, technology and services industry (aka METS). What if that particular industry – with all its expertise, best practices and safety record – could be replicated for mega-scale hydrogen & ammonia production? Australia could not only lead in exports of renewable products, but also provide the know-how & ingenuity required to get more projects up-and-running overseas. And of course, all of this focus on Australia discounts the fact that other regional players have their own plans. Who are the key ammonia energy players in APAC? Is there a fixed hierarchy, or does green hydrogen & ammonia potentially unlock energy independence for other countries? Is Australia seizing the opportunity on offer, or are others steaming ahead?

To explore these questions, we’ve put together a terrific panel. Cindy Lim is CEO of Keppel Infrastructure, and she brings years of development experience and the all-important Singaporean perspective to the session. Olivia Brace is Hydrogen Transformation Partner with Advisian, and is currently leading various hydrogen business development initiatives within APAC. Tim Rogers is the General Manager (Australia) for Trafigura Group, and drives business development in Australia for an organisation well known to Ammonia Energy readers. The trio will be ably led in conversation by Penelope Howarth, who is the Energy Decarbonisation Focal Point at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Canberra. Join us in-person or online at 2PM, Thursday 25 August to hear more from this group.

Key allies dial-in to share updates

But before we answer those big questions, we had better do a round-up of updates from some of our key APAC allies. Dialing in from Tokyo, CFAA President Shigeru Muraki will take us through updates from Japan, and explain how the Japanese government’s thinking is evolving around ammonia imports. From Daejeon in South Korea, KIER Principal Researcher Hyung Chul Yoon will provide a wrap of his research organisation’s ammonia projects, and updates on current & planned Korean legislation regarding ammonia energy. Our conference attendees will also get the chance to hear more from KIER on Friday 26 August, when we stream the proceedings of the 2nd Green Ammonia Conference live from South Korea.

And from Mumbai we welcome Kashish Shah, Research Analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). Kashish’s presentation will be based on his recent report Green ammonia: low-hanging fruit for India’s green hydrogen dream, and we will hear more from him about ammonia updates in India. Join us in-person or online at 12PM, Thursday 25 August to hear more from this trio.