InterContinental Energy

Hydrom (Hydrogen Oman) has signed commercial term sheets and allocated land to a series of important ammonia export projects being developed in the Gulf nation. Green Energy Oman is one of three project consortia granted land near Duqm in the country’s south, with further allocations expected in the coming months. Also in Duqm, ENGIE & POSCO have launched a million-tonne-per-year ammonia production project, with the full production output to be exported to Korea over the forty year operational lifetime of the plant.

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.

Aramco is targeting production of 11 million tonnes per year of low-carbon ammonia by 2030, among a raft of new sustainability goals announced this week. Aramco’s target for renewable energy generating capacity target (12 GW) will be met by its involvement in the new ammonia Supergiant the Saudi Arabia Renewable Energy Hub, but the source of low-carbon ammonia production is not yet clear.

Singapore's sovereign wealth fund GIC has agreed to a strategic equity investment in InterContinental Energy, who are currently developing a number of green ammonia "Supergiants". GIC's announcement follows another significant green investment by Singapore, this time in Indonesia. $9 billion will fund a logistics hub in Jakarta and a number of renewable energy projects, with MoUs signed between the heads of state to cement a new focus on decarbonisation and alternative energies

ACME has selected KBR to provide ammonia synthesis technology for its new green hydrogen & ammonia production facility to be built in Duqm, Oman. The project was first announced in March 2021, and has now grown to $3.5 billion in investment size, with energy to be provided by 3 GW of solar panels and 0.5 GW onshore wind power. The 2,400 tonnes per day (or 0.9 million tonnes per year) renewable ammonia facility is planned to be operational in 2022.

bp and ARENA's eighteen-month feasibility study into the Geraldton Export-Scale Renewable Investment (GERI) project wrapped up this week - with encouraging results. The two organisations conclude that "Western Australia is an ideal place to develop large scale renewable energy assets that can in turn produce green hydrogen and/or green ammonia for domestic and export markets".

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. There's so much news this edition that we're bringing you two, special Wrap articles. Our first focuses on ammonia production - both existing and new build plants. This week: InterContinental Energy to build 25 GW of green ammonia production in Oman, Cummins and KBR to collaborate on integrated green ammonia solutions, New green ammonia pilot plant for Minnesota, Stamicarbon launches new technology for sustainable fertilizer production in Kenya, Haldor Topsoe and Shchekinoazot to explore ammonia plant decarbonisation in Russia, 1 million tonne blue ammonia per year in Norway and Trammo announces off-take MoU for 2GW AustriaEnergy plant in Chile.

Last week, Air Products, ACWA Power, and NEOM announced a $5 billion, 4 gigawatt green ammonia plant in Saudi Arabia, to be operational by 2025. Air Products, the exclusive off-taker, intends to distribute the green ammonia globally and crack it back to “carbon-free hydrogen” at the point of use, supplying hydrogen refueling stations. According to Air Products’ presentation on the project, “our focus is fueling hydrogen fuel cell buses and trucks.” This will be one of the first projects to be built in the industrial hub of NEOM, a futuristic “model for sustainable living.” NEOM is a key element in Vision 2030, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s plan to diversify the Saudi Arabian economy and reduce dependence on oil revenues. In other words, Saudi Arabia is establishing itself as “a global leader in green hydrogen production and green fuels.”