Topsoe

Topsoe’s SOE manufacturing plant in Herning, Denmark is on-track to begin operations this year, with the first 100 MW of units to be delivered in early 2025 to First Ammonia for its renewable ammonia production project in Port of Victoria, Texas.

First Ammonia has closed a successful Series B funding round, including contributions from Asian investors Mercuria Holdings and Manies Group. Funding will go directly towards the construction of First Ammonia’s renewable production plant near the Port of Victoria, Texas.

One of the key steps in project development is the selection of the licensor for the renewable ammonia synthesis loop. For renewable ammonia projects, licensors including KBR, Topsoe, Thyssenkrupp Uhde, Casale, and Stamicarbon offer a range of technologies and services covering small to large-scale ammonia production. We explore these different technology offerings, as well as the growing list of projects where they are being deployed.

China is keeping pace with IEA predictions for electrolyzer installations, with as much as 55% of the world’s total capacity to be installed there by 2028. Coupled with strong wind-power resources, domestic manufacturing capabilities and multiple economic drivers to transition away from coal-based ammonia production, China is ideally positioned to speed up the deployment of renewable ammonia projects.

Topsoe will deploy its new dynamic ammonia technology at Allied Green Ammonia’s under-development project on the Gove Peninsula, Northern Territory (and potentially its solid oxide electrolysis technology). Allied is targeting a production start in late 2028, with an initial capacity of more than 900,000 tonnes per year.

Topsoe will supply its ammonia loop technology to the million tonne per year renewable ammonia project in Newfoundland. Crown lands application approval means that project developers World Energy GH2 have now secured full land capacity for both initial and potential expansion phases for the project.

Solid oxide electrolysis has recently gained traction, and is fast becoming an attractive technology option for new ammonia production projects. This week we will explore a recent ISPT report, the scale-up of Topsoe’s manufacturing capacity, and several project announcements.

The Adams Fork Energy clean ammonia project will produce up to 2.16 million tonnes per year of ammonia, based on gas feedstock and CCS. The project will serve as the anchor for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub, one of a number of applications being considered by the US Department of Energy for funding as part of a $7 billion jump-start program.

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.

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.

Herning, Denmark will be the location for Haldor Topsøe’s new electrolyser manufacturing facility. The new facility will have an annual production capacity of 500 MW-worth of solid-oxide electrolyser units, scaling up to 5 GW. Topsøe’s announcement is the latest in a series of recent news items, suggesting that the momentum for electrolyser scale-up is building.

This week we explore some recent funding announcements for ammonia energy:

• New York-based Amogy receives backing from Amazon and the Empire State Development Fund.
• Haldor Topsoe reaches an agreement with the European Investment Bank for a €45 million loan to support R&D initiatives.
• Israel-based H2Pro closes a $75 million funding round to develop its proprietary water splitting technology.
• Hy2gen closes a €200 million investment round for construction of its green e-fuel facilities, including two green ammonia projects in Norway and Canada.
• and Australia-based Jupiter Ionics receives $2 million in government funding for development of its electrochemical synthesis technology.

Topsøe and newcomer Green Fuel will join forces to identify efficient and scalable technologies to produce green ammonia in Iceland. A coalition of organisations is also working on a new green energy park in the town of Reyðarfjörður on Iceland's east coast, with e-fuels production and use of the electrolysis by-product oxygen a major part of the plan.

News this week: future green bunker fuel hub planned for Bornholm, more Haldor Topsoe news, Australia partners up, 23 key players kick-off ammonia maritime fuel study, $100 billion hydro-hydrogen and ammonia in the DR Congo, Egypt planning $4 billion green hydrogen project, AP Ventures leads investment in Amogy, full steam ahead for MS Green Ammonia, new blue ammonia plant in Canada and new engineering contracts signed for key blue ammonia projects.

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.

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: updates from India, the PROMETEO project - continuous hydrogen production by SOEC, Viridis Bulk Carriers - a new zero-emissions shipping company, Korean Register AiP for ammonia bunkering vessel, two green hydrogen import MoUs for the Port of Rotterdam and Haldor Topsoe and Nel team up to offer green fuel solutions.

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: commercialised ammonia gas turbines, TDK and GenCell join forces, another GW of green ammonia production, small-scale green ammonia in rural Japan, hydroelectric ammonia in Laos, Viking Energy vessel updates, new partnerships for Haldor Topsoe and "any-fuel" high-temp PEM fuel cells.

Green ammonia projects continue to be announced at dizzying speed and scale. A few weeks ago, Origin Energy disclosed its feasibility study to develop 500 MW (hydro) / 420,000 tons per year of green ammonia in Tasmania, with first production targeted for mid-2020s. This week, a consortium led by Haldor Topsoe and Vestas announced 10 MW (wind+solar) / 5,000 tons of green ammonia in Denmark, which could be operational in 2022, making it the first green ammonia plant at this scale. Also this week, Yara made a significant corporate announcement, detailing a “transformation of its commercial business models, sales channels and offerings,” with the full decarbonization of its Porsgrunn plant at the heart of its strategy to use green ammonia “to enable the hydrogen economy.”

Earlier this month the journal Science published “Recent advances in solid oxide cell technology for electrolysis." The paper advances two important theses: first, solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) technology has an important role to play in the sustainable energy economy of the future; second, SOEC technology has achieved a set of economics that make commercial viability possible today.

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.”

ANNUAL REVIEW 2019: Blue hydrogen – defined as the version of the element whose production involves carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) – represents an alluring prospect for the energy transition.  The primary “blue” feedstocks, natural gas and coal, currently set the low-cost benchmarks for storable energy commodities.  With the addition of CCS, they are expected to set the low-cost benchmarks for low-carbon storable energy commodities.  Blue ammonia is very much included in this frame of reference since CCS could be applied to the CO2 waste stream from the Haber-Bosch process.  But neither blue hydrogen nor blue ammonia are sure things; a variety of technical, financial, regulatory, and social issues could stand in the way of their widespread adoption. But work on new technologies that have the potential to ease the way for blue products has come increasingly into view over the last twelve months.

A May 2019 paper published in Science reports on a technological advance that may have significant implications for ammonia production. The paper, Electrified methane reforming: A compact approach to greener industrial hydrogen production, presents a method for providing the heat required for steam methane reforming from renewable electricity instead of natural gas. The carbon intensity of ammonia production could thereby be reduced by about 30%. And, last month, Haldor Topsøe announced that it plans to build a demonstration plant in Denmark that will produce “CO2-neutral methanol from biogas using eSMR technology.” The plant is expected to be “fully operational in the beginning of 2022.”

After two successful years, the NH3 Event returns on June 6 & 7 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the third edition. Ammonia is still an underestimated route to achieving a sustainable energy economy. At the NH3 Event, members of the energy community, including the public, NGOs, policy-makers, industries, and academics — including well-known experts, developers, and scientists — gather to present the latest research results and commercial achievements, and to discuss new application fields and business prospects for ammonia in energy solutions. And this year with very interesting names!

The second annual European Conference on Sustainable Ammonia Solutions has announced its full program, spread over two days, May 17 and 18, 2018, at Rotterdam Zoo in the Netherlands. The international cadre of speakers, representing a dozen countries from across Europe as well as the US, Canada, Israel, and Japan, will describe global developments in ammonia energy from the perspectives of industry, academia, and government agencies.

The NH3 Fuel Association (NH3FA) has released the names of the organization’s charter group of sponsors. The common thread that unites the six companies? A conviction that ammonia energy represents a significant opportunity for their businesses. The sponsors are Yara, Nel Hydrogen, Airgas, Haldor Topsoe, Casale, and Terrestrial Energy.