Site items in: Australia

Accelerating green ammonia import plans for Germany
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RWE is accelerating plans for a green ammonia import terminal in Brunsbüttel, with facilities to be ready to receive 300,000 tonnes per year as early as 2026. Although the immediate focus for Brunsbüttel is a new LNG import facility, RWE indicates that the ultimate goal is complete conversion of the site to only import “green molecules” like ammonia. Brunsbüttel has already been identified as a likely destination for green ammonia exports from South Australia. And, an ongoing feasibility study by the Australian-German HySupply consortium has released interim results suggesting that shipping costs for Australian ammonia to the EU will be much lower than first thought.

Fortescue begins work on Queensland electrolyser plant
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Fortescue Future Industries’ 2 GW per annum electrolyser manufacturing plant in Queensland has officially broken ground in construction, and is on track to begin operations next year. FFI and Plug Power are equal partners in the electrolyser plant, which will manufacture Plug Power’s electrolyser units. The first electrolyser units off the process line in 2023 have already been earmarked for installation at FFI’s planned green hydrogen production facility in Gibson Island, Brisbane, next door to Incitec Pivot Limited’s existing ammonia plant. Agreements between FFI and state-owned power utilities were signed this week to plug Gibson Island electrolysers into Queensland’s power grid.

Blue ammonia in the Northern Territory & Wyoming
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A new, million-tonne per-year blue ammonia project is under development in the Northern Territory, Australia, with gas from the Pedirka Basin (located near Alice Springs) to be used to produce hydrogen, and carbon emissions sequestered in a nearby geological formation. An MoU between project developer Hexagon Energy Materials and FRV Australia will see FRV-owned renewable power (existing or new build) provide electricity to Hexagon's to-be-built hydrogen and ammonia production facilities.

In Wyoming, North Shore Energy and Starwood Energy Group have received over $4 million in funding from the Wyoming Energy Authority for "Project Phoenix" - a state-of-the-art ammonia complex with on-site carbon capture and sequestration capabilities to be built near Evanston.

New ammonia-powered vessels: Newcastlemax & Panamax class
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Rio Tinto and AngloEastern have announced they will develop Newcastlemax class, ammonia-powered bulk carriers. The dry cargo vessels will be the maximum size allowed to dock in the Port of Newcastle, Australia: an important coal & iron ore port in global maritime trade. Both AngloEastern and Rio Tinto are members of an Itochu-led maritime fuel study investigating the use of ammonia. In Japan, a "greener ships" consortium has produced its first-ever ammonia-powered design: a Panamax-class bulk carrier. And the China State Shipbuilding Corporation will develop two 93,000 m3 ammonia-powered ammonia carrier vessels, with Bureau Veritas granting AiP for the vessel design.

Trafigura plans new green export project in South Australia
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Trafigura and the South Australian state government will jointly fund FEED work into a commercial-scale green hydrogen export facility in Port Pirie, 200km north of Adelaide, the South Australian capital city. At full-scale the facility will produce 100 tonnes per day green hydrogen from 440 MW of electrolysers, with some earmarked for local use and the remainder to be exported as green ammonia (max. 200,000 tonnes per year). Oxygen produced during electrolysis will be sent next-door to Nyrstar's Port Pirie smelter, one of the world's largest producers of lead and silver. At full capacity, the electrolysis facility will meet 100% of the smelter's oxygen requirements.

Fortescue's ammonia locomotive one step closer
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R&D for ammonia-powered locomotives is full steam ahead in Perth, as Fortescue Future Industries moves onto converting two four-stroke, diesel locomotives to run on ammonia fuel. Deployment of an ammonia-powered demonstration locomotive within their current rail operations is planned for later this year. In other FFI news this week, a technical feasibility study has given the thumbs up for FFI to convert Incitec Pivot's existing Gibson Island ammonia production plant to a green ammonia facility, and a new agreement between Australian energy giant AGL and FFI will see the pair turn the current Liddell and Bayswater coal power stations into a huge green hydrogen hub near Newcastle, NSW.

Producing cheap, clean hydrogen: new updates
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Three new updates this week:

1. A team at Durham University has shown that a massive scale-up of PEM electrolyser manufacturing capability can slash the capital costs of producing electrolyser units by up to 70%.

2. A team from the University of Campinas has proposed more focus on electrolysis of waste and seawater to produce hydrogen, avoiding direct competition between drinking water and hydrogen production.

3. A team from the Australian National University has demonstrated a new pathway forward for hydrogen production directly from sunlight by demonstrating a stable, efficient photocatalyst.