Showcasing ammonia energy developments in China

From Cardiff to Shanghai

The Symposium on Ammonia Energy (SoAE), initiated in 2022, has aimed to bring together researchers, technologists and developers interested in the subject of Ammonia Energy. Since its establishment, the symposium has been conceived to foster collaboration by minimizing political barriers, geographical restrictions, and economic backgrounds, hence serving as a truly open platform to progress the subject of ammonia energy. By honest exchange of ideas, joint search of knowledge to understand complex phenomena, and open access to unique science and technology capable of making ammonia a critical chemical for future use and applications, SoAE seeks to establish a strong academic and technologist voice to make ammonia a global net zero alternative.

It was exciting to receive colleagues, researchers and students from all corners of the globe at Cardiff, UK, in 2022. More exciting was to see that the number of submissions, topics and interest on the symposium grew during its 2nd edition, organized and delivered excellently by our colleagues at Orleans, France. In 2024, it was the time for our partners in Asia to shine and show how the interest in ammonia has reached a critical mass for its production, storage, distribution and use as a green energy compound. Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), with its magnificent expertise and unique infrastructure, hosted the 3rd Symposium on Ammonia Energy from the 23rd to the 27th of September 2024. It has been a great pleasure to work behind the scenes to fully support the great efforts that STJU has taken to bring together academics, researchers, students and industrial partners to what seems to be the biggest of our events so far.

With more than 23 countries represented by almost 300 state-of-the-art research presentations and posters spread across 11 subjects and 7 parallel sessions, a unique “academia plus industry” workshop, 7 high level plenary speakers, and over 520 attendees, the event demonstrated how the interest on ammonia energy is growing at an accelerated pace, especially in the Far-East. From small developments of the size of a single sand grain to large coal-ammonia co-firing industrial studies, the Symposium was a complete success. The University of Minnesota in the USA will host the 4th symposium by the end of September 2025, a conference that promises to be as engaging as the Shanghai event.

Focused on frontiers, seeking new opportunities

Key topics presented in Shanghai included:

• learnings from a decade of R&D into catalysts for ammonia synthesis using renewable energy
• new applications for direct ammonia combustion
• new chemical pathways for ammonia synthesis and cracking
• direct ammonia fuel cells
• the challenges developing low and zero-emission ammonia engines
• large-scale ammonia co-firing, which is now part of a national power decarbonisation strategy in China

Also showcased was a key academic-industry demonstration project. An ammonia-hydrogen combustion project was launched in late 2023 by Monalisa Group and Foshan Xianhu Laboratory for the industrial-scale production of ceramics. A production line fueled by ammonia-hydrogen combustion officially began operations last month at Monalisa’s manufacturing facility in Guangdong (see video).