Fortescue Future Industries and German-based polymer manufacturer Covestro have entered into a long-term agreement for the supply of green hydrogen and derivatives, particularly green ammonia. Up to 100,000 tonnes per year of green hydrogen will be delivered to Covestro locations in Asia, Europe and North America, possibly commencing in 2024.
Uniper and Novatek have signed a long-term supply agreement to transport up to 1.2 million tonnes of blue ammonia annually from Novatek's to-be-built blue ammonia plant in Siberia to Uniper's planned "climate-friendly" hydrogen hub in Wilhelmshaven.
Korean Register has granted AiP for two more ammonia-fueled vessel designs: a 60,000 m3 carrier and a 38,000 m3 ammonia transport/bunkering vessel. Both designs were developed by Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering, with assistance from Hyundai Heavy Industries. Importantly, the new AiPs mark the first milestone achievement for the 'Green Ammonia Shipping/Bunkering Consortium', which was launched in May 2021 with the explicit purpose of developing ammonia-fueled ship designs for approval by Korean Register.
Sumitomo and Oshima Shipbuilding will jointly design & develop an 80,000 m3, ammonia-fueled dry bulk carrier, to hit the water by 2025. In a separate agreement, Sumitomo and Keppel O&M will work together to implement ammonia fuel bunkering in Singapore, with the aim to begin commercial operations in the mid-2020s. Development of a bunkering vessel and a full ammonia value chain (including offshore power generation) is central to the Keppell partnership.
We look at four new developments this week:
1. A team from DTU Energy and the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics have uncovered a new class of alternative catalysts for mild condition ammonia synthesis. The ternary ruthenium complex hydrides Li4RuH6 and Ba2RuH6 avoid the energy-intensive pathway of nitrogen dissociation in a "synergistic" manner.
2. A team from the Korea Institute of Machinery and Materials reported a highly selective (95%) plasma ammonia synthesis method.
3. A team from Delft University of Technology has presented an present an "unconventional electrochemical design" that physically separates hydrogen and dinitrogen activation sites.
4. A team at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research has demonstrated a new mechanochemical ammonia synthesis system that operates at room temperature and pressures as low as 1 bar.
Kawasaki Heavy Industry's 86,700 m3, LPG and "liquefied ammonia gas" (LAG) carrier has been ordered for the fifth time in 2021. K Line, Eneos (two vessels) and now NYK (also two vessels) will take delivery of the VLGCs from KHI's Sakaide shipyards in 2023 (K Line and Eneos), and 2024 (NYK). The flexibility of the dual-purpose LPG/ammonia carrier is key to its newfound popularity.
South Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced ammonia coal co-combustion will be operational in over half the country's coal-fired power generating units by 2030. The government has already set a target of 13.8 - 21.5% of national power generation coming from hydrogen & ammonia-fed gas turbines by 2050 (the 2050 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap was approved in October). To help drive the required commercialisation & technology deployment, MOTIE, KEPCO and other Korean power utilities will collaborate in a ‘Hydrogen and Ammonia Power Generation Demonstration Promotion Group’. In supply news, South Korean oil & gas major GS Energy announced this week is will join ADNOC and Japan-based Mitsui & Co. to develop the million tonne per year blue ammonia project in Al Ruwais, UAE.
Fortescue Future Industries has been hitting the Ammonia Energy headlines of late. All of these various announcements point towards a singular target, announced in June by Fortescue Chairman Andrew Forrest: the supply of 15 million tonnes green hydrogen to global markets by 2030. Taken on their own these are significant steps, but COP26 was also the stage for a number of other significant ammonia and hydrogen-related announcements by FFI. Over the last fortnight we've seen the launch of green ammonia production projects in Papua New Guinea, Jordan & Argentina, buyers announced for a full 10% of FFI's global green hydrogen production, a partnership to decarbonise aviation and more developments in the electrolyser space.