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Building the EU end of the Australia-Europe supply chain
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At this year’s Australia conference, we recognise that interest in Australian ammonia is on the rise. At previous conferences we’ve witnessed the strengthening of ties between Australia, Japan and South Korea, and this year we see a new player emerge. The EU’s growing ambitions have catapulted it into the ammonia conversation, and the nascent of an Australia-Europe ammonia supply chain is quickly developing. To give our audience the EU-perspective, we welcome a terrific virtual panel beaming in live from the Netherlands, Germany and Italy: Jill Thesen (Federation of German Industries), Martijn Coopman (Port of Rotterdam), Anna Fedeles (Austrade) and Anna Freeman (Clean Energy Council). Join us in-person or online, and make sure to register by the end of this week (Friday 29 July) to secure the early-bird rate.

Introducing our Australia conference, meet our first panel
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This year marks the fourth edition of our annual Australia conference, and we begin our event with a challenging topic - for good reason. As momentum grows, so do the stakes. The opportunity for hydrogen & ammonia in Australia is unparalleled, but establishing a world-leading industry requires many, many pieces to come together. To explore the challenges immediately ahead, we’ve brought together three familiar faces with a wealth of experience: Paul Hodgson (Scaling Green Hydrogen CRC), Alana Barlow (Sumitomo Australia) and Laurentiu Zamfirescu (Principal Safety and Risk Engineer, AMOG Consulting). Join us in-person or online, and make sure to register by the end of this week (Friday 29 July) to secure the early-bird rate.

Term sheet signed for renewable ammonia sale from Oman
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Yara Clean Ammonia has committed to complete off-take from the first phase of ACME and Scatec’s new renewable ammonia production plant in Oman. Yara will off-take 100,000 tonnes per year, with a potential for more as the plant expands towards full capacity. The announcement joins a series promising off-take agreements signed within the last twelve months.

Ammonia solutions for the UK construction industry
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The UK government will fund a new red diesel replacement project from engine developers MAHLE Powertrain and partners Clean Air Power and the University of Nottingham. The trio will demonstrate decarbonisation of heavy duty engines using ammonia and hydrogen fuel, or a blend of the two. Fortescue Future Industries and Liebherr are also involved in the decarbonisation of the UK construction sector, with agreements on hydrogen fuel supply & engine development signed last October. Fuel cells also enter this mix, with AFC Energy currently rolling out off-grid, ammonia-powered gensets on construction sites in London and Madrid.

More funding for ammonia energy: ReMo & Monolith
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ReMo Energy has just closed a successful $5 million seed funding round to develop renewable ammonia production solutions for the US Midwest. Monolith Materials announced a successful funding round of $300 million (investors include BlackRock and Temasek) to further develop its methane pyrolysis technology, expand existing facilities and clear a “deep backlog” of to-be-developed hydrogen & ammonia projects.

Skovgaard renewable ammonia project orders electrolysers from Nel
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The consortium developing the Skovgaard ammonia project has ordered an alkaline electrolyser system from Nel, bringing the 10 MW plant a step closer to reality. Skovgaard will be an important test case for hydrogen production directly from renewable energy, with no battery storage or firming to be used.

In other electrolyser news, German-based Sunfire and US-based Electric Hydrogen have received new funding to develop their technologies. Also in Germany, Siemens and Air Liquide will join forces to develop a GW-sized factory in Berlin, with 3 GW of PEM electrolyser units to be manufactured annually by 2025.

Maritime actors push on with overcoming ammonia fuel safety concerns
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Two recent reports (one from Bureau Veritas & Total, the other from the Together in Safety consortium) illustrate just how seriously the maritime industry is pursuing low carbon ammonia fuel. While progress in the maritime ammonia space is impressive, safety risks are widely-acknowledged and work remains to be done.

Both reports identify key hazards facing adoption of ammonia as a maritime fuel, and echo points heard before in the development of methanol & LNG as maritime fuels: high-risk hazards currently exist that must be eliminated, mitigated or controlled. But Together in Safety concludes the way forward will be via collaboration & shared responsibility - something we’re already seeing in the multiple high-profile safety studies and consortia working around the globe. Thankfully, the willingness of significant maritime players to engage on ammonia and the momentum for change are both high.

AmmoniaDrive
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The University of Amsterdam and TU Delft will lead an academic-industry consortium that will determine the feasibility of combining ammonia-fed solid-oxide fuel cells with internal combustion engines for maritime propulsion. The AmmoniaDrive project just received over €2 million in support from the Dutch government, and is the latest in a series of hybrid and fuel cell-based propulsion projects using ammonia as an onboard fuel.

Harnessing opportunities for deep decarbonisation in India: new report
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A new report from Indian government think-tank NITI Aayog and the Rocky Mountain Institute has outlined the enormous opportunity for India to produce renewable hydrogen & ammonia. Ammonia establishes itself early as a key part of this transition: both via the use of renewable hydrogen for fertiliser production, and as a near-term export vector. The report envisions 160 GW of installed electrolysers by 2030, of which nearly 100 GW could be dedicated to producing ammonia. This would make India one of the world’s largest producers of renewable ammonia for export by the end of the decade.

New roadmap for ammonia imports into Germany
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A Fortescue-led Australian-German business coalition has released a roadmap and ten-point action plan to meet ambitious ammonia import targets for Germany. Policy recommendations on the EU and Australian side of the emerging supply chain include financial support to address the first-mover disadvantage. Guidehouse have laid out recommendations of their own in a new report, which finds maritime shipping of ammonia over long distance is the best import option, and that - ideally - hydrogen derivatives should be shipped into Germany in the form required by end users, saving on reconversion costs.

Meanwhile in Copenhagen, EU Commission Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans has backed the shipping industry to make the transition faster than expected, with ammonia to be the “future fuel”.