This week we explore three mega-scale production projects planned for Texas. On the Gulf Coast, Avina Clean Hydrogen is developing a 100% renewable-powered ammonia plant. In northern Texas, Air Products and AES are planning a 1.4 GW wind & solar-powered hydrogen production facility targeting the heavy trucking market, and in Beaumont OCI has just broken ground on its new million-tonne-per-year CCS ammonia plant.
The WA state government, the Port of Rotterdam and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will embark on a trilateral export study. The study will help fast-track development of Oakajee Mid West ammonia export hub. The state government has also launched new guidelines for land-use for large-scale renewable hydrogen projects, and announced the creation of three entities to help projects move through the approvals process.
The Maritime & Port Authority of Singapore and the country’s Energy Market Authority (EMA) have jointly launched an EOI process to build, own and operate low or zero-carbon ammonia power generation and bunkering projects on Jurong Island. A project lifetime of 25 years is stipulated, with operations to begin in 2027 or before.
The Port of Rotterdam Authority will lead a feasibility study into the establishment of an onsite, million-tonne-per-year ammonia cracker. The announcement caps a big year of progress for the Port of Rotterdam, with preparations well underway to receive ammonia imports into Europe.
In this week’s maritime ammonia news:
COP27 saw an exciting number of green shipping corridor announcements. But the question remains: how do we actually build them? Earlier this year, the Maersk McKinney Møller Centre for Zero Carbon Shipping launched a Feasibility Phase Blueprint, setting out some key assessment criteria to consider. At the recent annual AEA conference in Phoenix, we took a group of sixty participants through the criteria, asking how and where the ammonia sector should engage.
In a ceremony before King Mohammed VI of Morocco, OCP Group presented a new, green investment plan for 2023-27. The $13 billion plan will see OCP install 5 GW of renewable energy by 2027, completely powering their fertiliser manufacturing operations. A production target of one million tonnes per year renewable ammonia (also by 2027) will see OCP make serious headway into replacing its ammonia imports into Morocco with locally-made feedstock, improving food & energy security.
Trinidad & Tobago’s National Energy Corporation, the Inter-American Development Bank and KBR have released their findings on how to establish a market for renewable hydrogen in the Caribbean country. Underpinned by a stepwise development of 57 GW of offshore wind power potential, the country could completely displace fossil-based hydrogen with renewable hydrogen in 2052. The 4 million tonnes-per-year production potential would meet industrial demands and lay the foundation for a significant export industry, potentially transforming Trinidad & Tobago into a global energy hub.
For our December episode of Ammonia Project Features, we welcomed Alzbeta Klein (International Fertilizer Association) and Tarek Hosny (Fertiglobe). Our speakers discussed a pathway forward for Egypt’s fertilizer industry to decarbonize, presented the newly-commissioned Egypt Green Hydrogen project, and outlined the unique advantages (and challenges) of developing renewable production projects in Egypt.
H2Global has launched its first tender process for the import of “green” ammonia into Europe, with a €360 million, ten year contract on offer beginning in 2024. In Germany, public gas company VNG and Total Eren will work towards ammonia imports into Rostock from 2028. VNG is already developing a significant clean production & import hub at Rostock, after an agreement with Equinor earlier this year.