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Spanish government launches support scheme for hydrogen valleys
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Spain’s Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) has outlined a new subsidy program to help establish valleys or clusters for renewable hydrogen production. €1.2 billion in direct capital investment assistance will be allocated across a minimum of three projects, with an auction process to launch later this year.

bp takes FID on Castellón, to acquire key stake in Oman mega-project
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In its quarterly earnings call last month, bp unveiled progress in a number of key renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects. To help decarbonise its existing refinery in Castellón, Spain, a bp and Iberdrola-led consortium has taken FID on the HyVal project. bp also revealed that it will take an equity share and act as operator for the HYPORT Duqm project: a GW-scale ammonia export project being developed in southern Oman.

R&D recap: the <i>Journal of Ammonia Energy</i>
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Ahead of the 3rd Symposium on Ammonia Energy in Shanghai next month, we take the opportunity to highlight select papers and key results from the first two editions, starting with the 2022 Cardiff event:

  • In an ammonia-diesel blending study, Orleans University and WinGD found that minimising the diesel fraction actually led to increased N2O emissions.
  • In a bid to produce an optimal ammonia-hydrogen fuel blend, a University of Birmingham team characterised the ammonia cracking mechanism of a new, transition metal-promoted lithium amide catalyst.
  • A KAUST study of swirl intensity of an ammonia-methane blended fuel finds that increasing the swirl number leads to a more compact flame, reducing NOX emissions.
  • A team from the University of Minnesota found that combustion durations comparable to gasoline were obtained for ammonia-hydrogen fuel blends.
  • And, as part of a joint academic-industry session on safety, it was recommended that a careful, proactive approach is taken towards new ammonia users, likely exposure risk points and deploying maritime ammonia fuel.

Fertiglobe success in H2Global pilot auction marks milestone in renewable ammonia supply for EU
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Fertiglobe has won the first H2Global pilot auction for renewable ammonia, promising to deliver 397,000 tons of renewable ammonia between 2027 and 2033. H2Global’s announcement comes at the end of a two year auction process. Following the H2Global announcement, Fertiglobe committed to a twenty-year offtake deal for renewable hydrogen feedstock from the Egypt Green Hydrogen project, demonstrating the investor certainty fostered by the auction.

FertigHy: low-carbon fertiliser in France
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Stamicarbon will provide its NX Stami Green technologies for a new renewable ammonia and fertilisers plant to be constructed in France. The FertigHy consortium plans to start construction in 2027, and will utilise new build renewable energy and back-up grid power for the facility.

<i>Viking Energy</i> vessel awarded AiP
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The Norwegian Maritime Authority has approved the ammonia fuel system design to be deployed onboard the platform supply vessel Viking Energy. The system will directly feed 2 MW of solid oxide fuel cells, allowing for long-range, high power sailing of up to 3,000 hours per year.