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Japan Advances SOFCs for the Built Environment
Article

Japan Advances SOFCs for the Built Environment

Stephen H. Crolius March 05, 2020

A steady stream of Japanese news reports over the last several months attest to the country’s progress in deploying fuel cells in the built environment. Dubbed “Ene-Farms,” the appliances function as micro-scale combined heat and power units, providing electricity as well as heat for domestic applications. Most of the Ene-Farms deployed so far feature proton-exchange membrane (PEM) technology (which requires high-purity hydrogen). However, two recent developments show that solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology (well suited for ammonia) could play a role, maybe even a large role, in Japan's Hydrogen Society.

ARPA-E Issues RFI for Next-Gen Ammonia System Integration
Article

ARPA-E Issues RFI for Next-Gen Ammonia System Integration

Stephen H. Crolius February 27, 2020

This week the United States Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (ARPA-E) issued a Request for Information under the title “Next Generation Ammonia System Integration Project.” This is a strong signal that ARPA-E intends to see the ammonia energy technologies in its portfolio through to commercial fruition.

Royal Society publishes Green Ammonia policy briefing
Article

Royal Society publishes Green Ammonia policy briefing

Trevor Brown February 20, 2020

This week, the UK's Royal Society published an influential "Green Ammonia" policy briefing on ammonia as a "zero-carbon fertiliser, fuel and energy store." Rather than provide a comprehensive summary here — the Royal Society policy briefing is freely available to download — I want to focus only on four specific figures. These four illustrations repackage previously available data in valuable new ways, communicating key insights around the barriers to and opportunities for ammonia energy.

Gigastack Phase 2 Receives Funding in the UK
Article

Gigastack Phase 2 Receives Funding in the UK

Stephen H. Crolius February 20, 2020

Earlier this week the United Kingdom’s Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced that a group led by ITM Power has been awarded GBP 7.5 million (USD $9.7 million) for the second phase of a renewable hydrogen project dubbed “Gigastack.” According to the BEIS announcement, “Gigastack will demonstrate the delivery of bulk, low-cost and zero-carbon hydrogen through ITM Power’s gigawatt scale polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) electrolysers . . .” with the goal of “dramatically reduc[ing] the cost of electrolytic hydrogen.” The hydrogen produced will be used for petroleum refining, although the project partners have their eyes on opportunities that go well beyond desulfurization of oil.

US House draft bill defines ammonia as low-carbon fuel
Article

US House draft bill defines ammonia as low-carbon fuel

Trevor Brown February 13, 2020

In January 2020, the US House of Representatives published draft legislation that explicitly defines ammonia as a "low-carbon fuel." This is a first. The CLEAN Future Act is focused on electricity generation, and aims "to build a clean and prosperous future by addressing the climate crisis, protecting the health and welfare of all Americans, and putting the Nation on the path to a net-zero greenhouse gas economy by 2050." The point isn't that this will become law — that seems unlikely anytime soon — but that a mature understanding of the potential benefits of ammonia energy has finally reached policymakers in the heart of Washington DC.

USDoE Issues H2@Scale Funding Opportunity Announcement
Article

USDoE Issues H2@Scale Funding Opportunity Announcement

Stephen H. Crolius February 13, 2020

Last month the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) issued a USD$64 million funding opportunity announcement (FOA) on behalf of the H2@Scale program. H2@Scale was launched in 2016 by representatives of several U.S. national laboratories with the goal of moving hydrogen energy technologies toward practical implementation. It is certainly one of the United States’ main vehicles for advancing the hydrogen economy. Given this, the program’s investments will do much to determine whether the U.S. is a leader or follower in ammonia energy. In June 2017, Ammonia Energy reported that “ammonia energy had started to move from the extreme periphery of the H2@Scale conceptual map toward its more trafficked precincts.” The EERE FOA shows that while progress is being made, the journey is not yet complete.

Maritime decarbonization is a trillion dollar opportunity
Article

Maritime decarbonization is a trillion dollar opportunity

Trevor Brown February 06, 2020

In January 2020, the Global Maritime Forum published new analysis that calculates "the capital investment needed to achieve decarbonization" in line with the International Maritime Organization's Initial GHG Strategy. The result of this analysis, which assumes that ammonia will be "the primary zero carbon fuel choice adopted by the shipping industry," is an aggregate investment of between $1 trillion and $1.4 trillion dollars, from 2030 to 2050, or roughly $50 to $70 billion per year across two decades. Ship-side costs are only 13% of this number. The bulk of the investment will be directed towards green ammonia plants for maritime fuel synthesis. By 2050, this global fuel demand is estimated to be more than 900 million tons per year of green ammonia, more than five time today's total global output of conventional ammonia.

Korean Register Sees Ammonia as Preferred Alternative Maritime Fuel
Article

Korean Register Sees Ammonia as Preferred Alternative Maritime Fuel

Stephen H. Crolius February 06, 2020

Last week the classification society Korean Register of Shipping (KR) released Forecasting the Alternative Marine Fuel: Ammonia, a “technical document on the characteristics and the current status of ammonia as ship fuel.” One hesitates to take the title too literally, but the report really does forecast that ammonia will be the alternative marine fuel. Over the last year, a number of maritime transport stakeholders – engine producers, government agencies, other classification societies – have identified ammonia as a promising means of industry decarbonization. But in joining the group, KR makes a notably explicit and complete case in ammonia’s favor.

MAN ammonia engine update
Article

MAN ammonia engine update

Trevor Brown January 30, 2020

In November 2019, MAN ES published a technical paper describing the design and performance of its two-stroke green-ammonia engine. The paper also quietly announces the intentions of MAN ES to exploit ammonia energy technologies in a new business case, Power-to-X (PtX, "the carbon-neutral energy storage and sector coupling technology of the future"). In other words, MAN is moving into green ammonia fuel production.