In this Technology Insights article, we explore the different technology options for low-emission ammonia production from gas feedstock. What are the different energy, carbon capture, scale and maturity trade-offs that need to be considered? What technology choices are project developers currently making?
Air Liquide will invest up to $850 million to build, own and operate four large air separation units as part of ExxonMobil’s low-carbon hydrogen project in Baytown, Texas. The units will provide nitrogen and oxygen feedstocks to ExxonMobil, which will be used to produce low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia.
Multiple ammonia import bases are under development in Asia. In Singapore, Vopak and Air Liquide will explore new infrastructure on Jurong Island. In South Korea, Ulsan Port Authority and NGO Pacific Environment will cooperate to accelerate the transition of Ulsan into an “eco-friendly” port. And in Japan, IHI will lead two study consortia exploring new supply and distribution hubs in Hokkaido and Fukushima.
LSB Industries, Vopak Moda, INPEX and Air Liquide will collaborate on the pre-FEED stage for a new, mega-scale, CCS-based ammonia project to be located on the Houston Ship Channel. From 2027, the new plant will produce over 1.1 million tonnes of ammonia per year.
Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Chemicals, IHI Corporation and the Kansai Electric Power Company will explore the establishment of a hydrogen & ammonia supply chain based in Osaka. Ammonia fuel will be used to decarbonise electricity generation, and cracked to provide a feedstock for other industrial processes like steel-making. In South Korea, a similar partnership is evolving between LOTTE and Air Liquide. You can learn more about the emerging nexus between ammonia cracking and steel-making at our upcoming annual conference in Atlanta, USA.
In cracking technology updates this week:
INPEX has selected Tsubame BHB and Air Liquide as technology providers for the demonstration project, which will utilise autothermal reforming technology and CCS in depleted gas fields to produce around 500 tonnes of ammonia per year. JOGMEC and NEDO are also supporting the project, with the goal of gaining operational experience with CCS in Japan.
Recently, KBR launched its Ammonia 10,000 technology for newbuild ammonia plants, tripling the largest available single train capacity to 10,000 metric tonnes per day. In our latest Technology Insights article, we explore the other pieces of the puzzle required for mega-scale ammonia, as well as some updates from the other end of the spectrum, with three distributed, small-scale ammonia synthesis systems under development in North America.
This week we explore three new partnerships for CCS-based ammonia production in the USA:
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.
A high-powered consortium of academic & industry partners - VoltaChem, TNO, ISPT, Air Liquide, BP, and OCI - will explore the upscaling potential of solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) to an industrial scale. One of the industrial applications to be investigated is the use of SOEC technology for hydrogen production at an ammonia plant. The study aims to present a viable roadmap forward for an SOEC demonstration integrated into an existing petrochemical facility.
Air Liquide, Borealis, Esso, TotalEnergies and Yara signed a new MoU this week to assess the technical and economical feasibility of implementing an industrial CO2 capture and storage (CCS) chain, from their industrial facilities in Normandy to ultimate storage in the North Sea. For Yara’s Le Havre ammonia production plant, the project could deliver "100,000 tons Blue Ammonia."
At the start of this month, a coalition of eleven corporations launched a new advocacy body, Hydrogen Forward, with the explicit purpose of lobbying the United States government to pursue a national hydrogen strategy. "While Europe and East Asia have committed to investing hundreds of billions of dollars into hydrogen solutions, the U.S. is the only major market without a national hydrogen strategy. A comprehensive approach is critical because it provides a much-needed framework to enable fast, large-scale adoption."
Last week Ammonia Energy published “Europe!”, an article describing the European Commission’s Green Deal and the related appearance of national hydrogen strategies from several European countries. This week we have an article that describes another consequential European initiative that, while related to the Green Deal, is running on a distinct track: the Clean Hydrogen Alliance. Along the way a clear call to action has been sounded for the ammonia energy community.
ANNOUNCEMENT: California's Stanford University held a two-day workshop this week to launch a new effort aimed at advancing hydrogen “for stable, long-term, low-carbon energy storage.” The Stanford Hydrogen Focus Group intends to support research, serve as a technical resource, and disseminate information via workshops and symposia.
September 10–14 gave us five remarkable events both evidencing and advancing the rise of hydrogen in transportation and energy. Any one of them would have made it a significant week; together they make a sea change.
A recent Ammonia Energy post mentioned that in December 2017 “the Japanese government . . . approved an updated hydrogen strategy which appears to give ammonia the inside track in the race against liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid organic hydride (LOH) energy carrier systems.” While this news is positive, the hydrogen strategy remains the essential context for economic implementation of ammonia energy technologies in Japan; ammonia’s prospects are only as bright as those of hydrogen. This is why Ammonia Energy asks from time to time, how is hydrogen faring in Japan?
The U.S. Department of Energy H2@Scale program’s November 2017 workshop in California included mention of ammonia as a constituent of a future hydrogen economy. It also highlighted the relevance ammonia energy could have in California. California stands out globally as a large economy that is strongly committed to development of a hydrogen economy. The state’s strategy for hydrogen-powered transportation involves reducing the production cost of renewable hydrogen and the capital and operating costs of hydrogen fueling stations. It does not explicitly address the cost of intermediate hydrogen logistics. The question of cost is of utmost importance because California has so far put $120 million of public funds into hydrogen fueling stations and intends to invest an additional $20 million per year through 2022. The state’s aspiration is to move to a point where hydrogen that is used as a motor fuel is free of public subsidy. So it clearly behooves the state to investigate how ammonia could be used as a cost-reducing energy carrier. Toyota is active in California’s hydrogen movement and has announced plans to build a renewable hydrogen plant that will use cow manure as a feedstock. A project with a different conception, one that draws upon the solar and wind resources of the Mojave Desert to produce renewable hydrogen and logistically advantaged ammonia, would align better with the state’s sustainability objectives.
In the last 12 months ... Groups in Australia, Japan, Denmark, the U.K., and the U.S. all made progress with technologies that can be used to convert ammonia to hydrogen at fueling stations. This means that hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles can be handled as ammonia from the point of production to the point of dispensing.
Dateline Sydney, August 22, 2017. Industrial gas vendor Linde Group (under its BOC brand) confirms its participation in a previously announced Australian ammonia-energy project. With the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in the lead, the project partners will build and operate a pilot-scale “ammonia-to-hydrogen cracking” facility that showcases CSIRO’s hydrogen purification membrane technology. BOC/Linde will contribute goods and services valued at AUD$100,000 (USD$80,000) to the AUD$3.4 million project.
This week, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the leaders of 13 global companies, representing more than EUR 1 trillion in annual revenues, announced the launch of the Hydrogen Council. This new global initiative is important for obvious reasons: it presents a compelling "united vision and long-term ambition" for hydrogen, it promises global engagement with "key stakeholders such as policy makers, business and hydrogen players, international agencies and civil society," and it pledges financial commitments to RD&D totaling EUR 10 billion over the next five years. It is important for a subtler reason too: it is the first hydrogen industry promotion I've seen that includes ammonia. It includes ammonia both implicitly, encompassing "hydrogen and its compounds," and explicitly, listing ammonia as a "renewable fuel" in its own right.