A team led by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) and the Silesian University of Technology (SUT) is currently working on Project ACTIVATE. Their goal is to field demonstrate an ammonia-powered, cost-competitive agricultural vehicle by late 2023.
This week Horisont Energi, Equinor and Vår Energi entered into a new cooperation agreement for development of the Barents Blue facility, and also revealed the project is set to triple in size from 1 million tonnes per year blue ammonia to 3 million.
Azane Fuel Solutions and project partners have been awarded €8,600,000 from the Norwegian government to build its world-first green ammonia bunker terminal. The project partners span the entire value chain for ammonia as a maritime fuel, and include ECONNECT Energy, Amon Maritime, Yara and Viridis Bulk Carriers.
Among the many challenges for cracking researchers is their choice of material to build their catalysts from. There is hope that cheaper, more readily-available materials will replace the Ruthenium-based catalysts that have dominated the field up to this point. This week two new pieces of research suggest a way forwards using alkali metal-based materials: Lithium and Calcium.
The journey from the laboratory bench to the shop floor continues apace in 2021, as researchers deepen their understanding of ammonia combustion within engines. The team at Université d’Orléans has published several pieces of research already this year, with interesting results on operating limits, spray characteristics and flame propagation.
The UK government has launched its vision for a society-wide hydrogen economy, with the first phase to entail 5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030. Of huge interest to our readers here at Ammonia Energy are the explicit references in the report to the important future role of ammonia as: i) a maritime fuel, ii) a peaking power fuel for gas turbines, and iii) an export vector.
This week in Norway: i) Yara, Aker Clean Hydrogen and Norway's state hydropower company Statkraft are all equal owners in HEGRA, a new entity that will steer electrification & decarbonisation at Yara's Porsgrunn ammonia plant, ii) St1 and Horisont will jointly develop a new green ammonia project in Finnmark, northern Norway, and iii) Grieg Edge and hydro generator Arendals Fossekompani launch a new green ammonia venture: North Ammonia.