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Celebrating 20 years of the AEA
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Our recent conference in Atlanta, USA marked an incredible 20 year journey for the AEA. From humble beginnings, the Association is now in a position to have a critical impact on the growth of the clean ammonia industry, with certification, safety and increased collaboration between members all on the near-term agenda.

“A common vision”: Germany forge new ties for hydrogen imports with the Netherlands, Africa
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Germany and the Netherlands have forged a groundbreaking new hydrogen partnership, doubling down on their common vision of a thriving European green hydrogen import market. The countries have announced a joint H2Global tender worth €600 million launching in 2024, as well as a plan to develop cross-border hydrogen infrastructure. Also this month, a new €4 billion commitment to Africa from Germany will act as the “starting signal” for deeper cooperation on hydrogen & renewable energy. Meanwhile, a recent Fraunhofer ISE study provides key insights into the export markets that are best equipped to meet this new demand.

Decarbonizing existing, SMR-based ammonia plants: workshop recap
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Decarbonization of existing steam methane reforming-based ammonia plants is possible, and changes in gas and heat flows can be recovered via alternative technologies. Recap our workshop in Atlanta, where we discussed the use of upstream methane monitoring equipment, electrolysers, carbon capture, hydrogen burners, energy storage and electric heating to achieve decarbonization of conventional ammonia plants.

Harmonised certification – opportunities and challenges across different markets
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In this session at our 2023 annual conference, panelists explored the challenges and opportunities for designing certification schemes for different markets. Moderated by Madhav Acharya, the discussion featured Emily Wolf from Ambient Fuel, Claire Behar from Hy Stor Energy, Domagoj Baresic from the UCL Energy Institute and Patrick Hastwell from KBR.

Compliance with EU standards offers flexibility for producers and will facilitate the immediate scale-up of export markets, but progress towards an umbrella-style certification scheme remains in focus for the AEA. Broad-based certification schemes will help create new voluntary demand markets and avoid a sector-by-sector approach to developing certification.

Data-driven, carbon intensity-based certification
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In this session at our 2023 annual conference, panelists discussed how ammonia certification methods should be data-centric, and focus less on colour labels. The panel featured Alicia Eastman (InterContinental Energy), Shigeru Muraki (Clean Fuel Ammonia Association), Wouter Vanhoudt (Hinicio), Linda Dempsey (CF Industries) and Conor Fürstenberg Stott (Fürstenberg Maritime Advisory).

Certification based on actual GHG emissions intensity is the principle on which the AEA’s certification system is being built, and the issue is becoming an increasingly important subject at international fora such as the IMO, the G7 and the G20.

Ensuring credible data inputs for ammonia certification
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This session of our 2023 annual conference explored the need for high quality data as an input to ammonia certification. The panel featured Jennifer Beach (Starfire Energy), Lara Owens (MiQ), Jim Seely (Authentix), Selim Sevikel (Global CCS Institute), and Rajiv Sabharwal (Bureau Veritas).

This issue is a key focus for the AEA, as our under-development ammonia certification system will require auditable data from a host of stakeholders – including gas and electricity suppliers, CO2 offtakers, and others – in order to calculate a true and trustworthy carbon footprint.

Impact of pre-certification on project finance
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In this session at our 2023 annual conference, panelists discussed how unified certification will help solve the chicken and egg relationship between offtake and project development. Moderated by Vibeke Rasmussen from Yara, the discussion featured Ed Davis from the Loan Program Office (US DoE), Tomoaki Ichida from Mitsui OSK Lines, Oleksiy Tatarenko from RMI and Dolf Gielen from the World Bank Group.

Long-term offtake will be made easier with unambiguous, harmonised certification standards, which will in turn have a positive impact on ammonia projects reaching financial close. Certification schemes like the one under-development by the AEA are sorely needed to break the impasse between project development and offtake.

Scaling clean ammonia: a World Bank perspective
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To scale clean ammonia production from 1.4 million tonnes under construction today to the projected 269 million tonnes needed by 2030, key risks including offtake, uncertain price and demand need to be addressed. Potential solutions include technological innovation, a clear mapping of supply and demand, and harmonised standards and certification. Learn more about our 2023 annual conference keynote featuring Dolf Gielen from the World Bank.

Ammonia bunkering in Egypt & beyond
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ITOCHU & Orascom Construction have partnered to develop an ammonia bunkering hub at the Suez Canal in Egypt. In other news, Fertiglobe and AD Ports Group will leverage the latter’s logistics expertise and infrastructure in the UAE to strengthen Fertiglobe’s ability to store and transport ammonia & urea.