Fertiglobe has won the first H2Global pilot auction for renewable ammonia, promising to deliver 397,000 tons of renewable ammonia between 2027 and 2033. H2Global’s announcement comes at the end of a two year auction process. Following the H2Global announcement, Fertiglobe committed to a twenty-year offtake deal for renewable hydrogen feedstock from the Egypt Green Hydrogen project, demonstrating the investor certainty fostered by the auction.
More than $37 billion will be invested across the initial stages of hydrogen and ammonia production projects, ranging in location from the Gulf of Suez to west of the Nile Delta. A series of agreements concerning existing and newly-announced projects were signed at the recent Egypt-EU Investment Conference.
ISCC PLUS-certified renewable ammonia from Fertiglobe will be used in a low-carbon laundry powder demonstration project by Unilever in India. In Germany, bio-ammonia produced by OCI Global (also ISCC PLUS-certified) will be used to produce methylmethacrylate, a key feedstock in PLEXIGLAS® production. The two announcements join a number of supply chains which have now incorporated low-carbon and renewable ammonia.
ITOCHU & Orascom Construction have partnered to develop an ammonia bunkering hub at the Suez Canal in Egypt. In other news, Fertiglobe and AD Ports Group will leverage the latter’s logistics expertise and infrastructure in the UAE to strengthen Fertiglobe’s ability to store and transport ammonia & urea.
Electrolysis-based ammonia production peaked worldwide around 1970, before the economies of scale and cheap gas feedstock led to its decline. With decarbonization and climate-neutral industrial processes now a critical priority, electrolysis-based ammonia production has re-emerged as a long-term solution. From a base of 10,000 tonnes per year worldwide production in 2020, as much as 100 million tonnes per year of electrolysis-based ammonia could be produced by the end of this decade, driven by a dramatic roll-out of renewable energy generation and installed electrolyzer capacity.
For our December episode of Ammonia Project Features, we welcomed Alzbeta Klein (International Fertilizer Association) and Tarek Hosny (Fertiglobe). Our speakers discussed a pathway forward for Egypt’s fertilizer industry to decarbonize, presented the newly-commissioned Egypt Green Hydrogen project, and outlined the unique advantages (and challenges) of developing renewable production projects in Egypt.
Meet Fertiglobe, leader of a consortium developing a renewable ammonia-to-fertilizer project in Ain Sokhna, near the Suez Canal. To further explore the landscape and potential for renewable fertilizers in Egypt, we also hear from the International Fertilizer Association.
This week we explore three ammonia production announcements from Egypt at COP27. The “Egypt Green” integrated hydrogen plant has been commissioned in Ain Sokhna, and will shortly begin supplying renewable hydrogen to two nearby ammonia plants. AMEA Power has agreed to develop an 800,000 tonnes per year ammonia production project (also in Ain Sokhna), and Fortescue Future Industries will explore the feasibility of multiple renewable projects across the country.
A shipment of thirteen tonnes of CCS-based ammonia has arrived in Hamburg from ADNOC’s al Ruwais ammonia plant near Abu Dhabi. This “demonstration cargo” has been in the works since March this year, when ADNOC signed an agreement with a raft of German organisations, including metals manufacturing giant Aurubis. The ammonia will be trialed as fuel to power copper rod production at Aurubis’ Hamburg smelter.
Masdar and ENGIE will lead development of a 200 MW green hydrogen facility to supply Fertiglobe's existing ammonia production plants in al-Ruwais, UAE. The announcement is the first "concrete action" taken by the pair following a $5 billion strategic alliance signed in December, with the goal of developing at least 2 GW electrolysis capacity in the UAE by 2030.
A Fertiglobe-led consortium has selected US-based Plug Power to supply 100 MW of PEM electrolysers for a new green ammonia project adjacent to EBIC's ammonia plant in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. At full capacity, the project will generate enough green hydrogen feedstock to produce 90,000 tonnes of ammonia per year. The consortium partners are targeting a start date of 2024 for operations, though enough construction work will be completed at the facility to showcase it at next year's COP.
Itochu will purchase blue ammonia from Abu Dhabi, under a new agreement with OCI NV and ADNOC. Itochu will also team up with Petronas Canada (subsidiary of the Malaysian state energy company) will team up for a feasibility study into a 1 million tonne per year blue ammonia production plant in Alberta.
This week: a roadmap for ammonia-fueled gas turbines in Asia, ammonia solutions in Iceland, IMO sets new decarbonisation milestone, new ammonia-powered vessels planned, maritime study developments, Australian updates (Fortescue, AREH and Itochu in Gladstone), Fertiglobe joins Abu Dhabi blue ammonia project and Statkraft's Porsgrunn plans.