As part of our Maritime Ammonia Insights webinar series, we explored the safety learnings gained so far during the development of maritime ammonia fueled engines, as well as existing best practices for safe ammonia handling. John Mott (ASTI), Kaj Portin and Laura Sariola (both Wärtsilä) were joined in conversation by Conor Furstenberg Stott.
The million-tonne-per-year, $8.4 billion renewable hydrogen & ammonia production facility will be built near Al Muwaileh, Saudi Arabia. Project partner Air Products will act as EPC contractor, and has also secured exclusive ammonia offtake rights from NEOM for thirty years.
Germany-based DAI Infrastruktur will develop Project Ra - 1.6 million tonnes per year of ammonia to be produced near Port Said on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast. DAI has already secured two offtake deals for the project, totalling one million tonnes of ammonia per year from 2028.
As Europe is expected to import a significant part of its hydrogen needs, ammonia cracking will play a key role. New results from a pre-feasibility study shed light on important considerations for efficient, safe deployment of industrial scale cracking at Rotterdam. Modernisation of the Netherland’s official ammonia storage and loading guideline also shows that fit-for-purpose regulation will be important to meet the demands of a fast-growing ammonia industry.
New industry partnerships between suppliers, offtakers and existing infrastructure owners will boost confidence for project developers in the fast-growing renewable ammonia industry. Recent announcements from Namibia, Germany and Norway demonstrate that a comprehensive ammonia supply chain is being established between Europe and key global locations, making FID & project investment decisions more straightforward.
A consortium of Danish and Indonesian companies - including Topsoe, Copenhagen Atomics, Pupuk and Pertamina - will collaborate to develop a 1 million tonnes per year, nuclear-powered ammonia project for fertiliser production in Bontang, Indonesia. Copenhagen Atomics’ thorium molten salt reactors will power 1 GW of solid oxide electrolysis capacity.
World Energy GH2’s Project Nujio’Qonik has a new partner, with SK ecoplant announcing a $50 million investment. Bloom Energy has also announced it will provide solid oxide electrolysis cells for the initial phase of the project. On the other side of Newfoundland, Pattern Energy is developing a renewable hydrogen & ammonia export facility at the Port of Argentia, with exports to Europe to begin from 2025.
Successful testing has been completed at IHI’s facilities in Ota, Japan. A four-stroke marine engine - fully integrated with exhaust gas aftertreatment and fuel supply systems - produced stable operations running on up to 80% ammonia fuel. Emissions of dinitrogen monoxide (N2O) and ammonia slip were reported as “virtually zero”.
Ammonia-powered vessels could be deployed on the iron ore trade routes between West Australia and East Asia from 2028, a new consortium study suggests. More than 20 vessels could be deployed on these routes by 2030, and over 360 by 2050. While ammonia fuel supply from Australia is unlikely to be a concern, validating the safety case for ammonia fuel, policy support to close the cost gap & industry-wide collaboration must all be established in time for deployment.
Solid oxide electrolysis has recently gained traction, and is fast becoming an attractive technology option for new ammonia production projects. This week we will explore a recent ISPT report, the scale-up of Topsoe’s manufacturing capacity, and several project announcements.