Amogy: ammonia-powered semi-truck

Amogy has announced successful testing of its new ammonia-powered, Class 8 semi-truck design in Stony Brook, New York. The news marks successful scale-up of Amogy’s ammonia-to-power system and integration into progressively larger vehicles: a 5 kW system into a drone in July 2021, a 100 kW system into a John Deere tractor in June 2022, and now a 300 kW system, providing around 900 kWh of total energy to the semi truck for tests over several hours. Track testing of the semi truck will proceed later this month, but you can see the vehicle in action below:

Ammonia is an optimal fuel to achieve rapid decarbonization of heavy transportations (sic) because it is available globally with existing infrastructure already in place. This achievement not only showcases Amogy’s technology as an accessible and scalable solution for trucking, it also highlights the capabilities and dedication of our outstanding team. First it was an ammonia-powered drone, then a tractor and now a truck. In the near future, we look forward to further scaling and tackling other hard-to-abate sectors, such as global shipping.

Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo in his organisation’s official press release, 17 Jan 2023

Amogy’s next step will be a further step up, deploying a 1 MW system in tugboat (a demonstration on that project will occur later this year). Amogy is also working on deployment of its system in a tank barge on the Mississippi River, in partnership with Southern Devall. In the marine setting, Amogy signed an agreement with fuel cell-based powertrain developers Ballard last December to integrate its ammonia-to-power system with Ballard’s fuel-cell based FCwaveTM engine (200 kW capacity).

Ammonia-powered trucks have been under development for several years now. Canada-based Hydrofuel began a commercial demonstration project in 2019, converting internal combustion engines in long-haul transport trucks to run on ammonia fuel. And in the off-road vehicle space, the UK government and private construction firms are working to wean the country off reliance on “red diesel”, instead running heavy vehicles on hydrogen & ammonia.