Topsøe and newcomer Green Fuel will join forces to identify efficient and scalable technologies to produce green ammonia in Iceland. A coalition of organisations is also working on a new green energy park in the town of Reyðarfjörður on Iceland's east coast, with e-fuels production and use of the electrolysis by-product oxygen a major part of the plan.
The Moolawatana Renewable Hydrogen Project will be constructed on a cattle station north some 570km north of Adelaide, South Australia's capital city. Powered by a mixture of wind and solar generation, the project will connect to an export facility at Port Bonython (around 500km in distance) via pipeline. Water will be sourced from an on-site desalination plant. At this stage, the pipeline will be for dedicated hydrogen transport, and conversion to ammonia will take place at Port Bonython. The Port is being developed as a major hydrogen & ammonia export hub, with the SA state government recently shortlisting seven major projects totaling 1.5 million tonnes per year green hydrogen export.
CF Industries' Board has approved $285 million of investment into blue ammonia production at two of its US plants - Donaldsonville and Yazoo City. By 2024 the new works will enable annual production of 1.25 million tonnes blue ammonia. Once finished, the units could sequester up to 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year (2 million tons at Donaldsonville and 500,000 tons at Yazoo City).
A group of 28 global organisations (H2Zero) announced significant new pledges to drive the development of the global hydrogen industry at COP26 last week. On the supply side, the pledges add up to 18 million tonnes per year "lower carbon" hydrogen landing in global markets, displacing fossil hydrogen, conventional transport fuel and natural gas for industrial heating applications. On the demand side (including the use of lower carbon hydrogen for fertiliser, chemicals and explosives production), the pledges add up to 1.6 million tonnes. Of particular interest is Yara's pledge to source &/or produce at least 3 million tonnes of reduced carbon ammonia by 2030.
Fortescue Future Industries has been hitting the Ammonia Energy headlines of late. All of these various announcements point towards a singular target, announced in June by Fortescue Chairman Andrew Forrest: the supply of 15 million tonnes green hydrogen to global markets by 2030. Taken on their own these are significant steps, but COP26 was also the stage for a number of other significant ammonia and hydrogen-related announcements by FFI. Over the last fortnight we've seen the launch of green ammonia production projects in Papua New Guinea, Jordan & Argentina, buyers announced for a full 10% of FFI's global green hydrogen production, a partnership to decarbonise aviation and more developments in the electrolyser space.
Four ammonia-powered ships were announced this week, with a mixture of retrofits and newbuilds. Fortescue Future Industries will convert the MMA Leveque to run on near 100% ammonia fuel within 12 months. Grieg Maritime and Wartsila's MS Green Ammonia vessel has a designer, with LMG Marin engaged to complete a concept by mid next year. And Eidesvik, Aker BP and Alma (formerly Prototech AS) have joined forces to deploy the ammonia-fed fuel cell technology being developed for the Viking Energy project.
Woodside Energy secured land this week for its H2TAS project in Bell Bay, Tasmania. A long-term lease on a partially-cleared project site nearby the Bell Bay Advanced Manufacturing Zone will be home to up to 1.7 GW of electrolysers, and a target production of 200,000 tonnes per year green ammonia. Last month Woodside also announced the H2Perth project: a world-scale, 1,500 tonnes per day hydrogen production facility aimed at local markets for refueling fuel cell vehicles, and international markets via export in the form of liquefied hydrogen or ammonia.
Incitec Pivot, Keppel Infrastructure and Temasek signed a new MoU this week to investigate the production and export of green ammonia from Australia to Singapore. Incitec Pivot's existing Kooragang Island facility in Newcastle, Australia could be one source, with the other being a potential greenfield site in Gladstone. Green ammonia production also represents a potential lifeline for Incitec Pivot's Gibson Island plant in Brisbane, which will cease conventional ammonia production by the end of 2022.
HYPHEN Hydrogen Energy will develop the first green mega-project in Namibia. The $9.4 billion, 300,000 tonnes per year green hydrogen project will focus on providing green hydrogen & ammonia product to local and global markets. The project site will be located within the Tsau Khaeb national park: a coastal diamond mining area in the Namib desert with world-class onshore wind and solar resources. The site will also have close proximity to both key shipping routes around southern Africa, and key land transport corridors.
This week in Glasgow, CWP Global and the Mauritanian government announced a timeline & production capacity for the mega project. The partners also call for the development of associated decarbonisation projects in Mauritania, helping to develop a local hydrogen & ammonia economy. Announced in June, the Aman project will be located on a 8,500 km2 desert site in the country’s north and be powered by 30 GW of wind and solar capacity.