Masdar and ENGIE will lead development of a 200 MW green hydrogen facility to supply Fertiglobe's existing ammonia production plants in al-Ruwais, UAE. The announcement is the first "concrete action" taken by the pair following a $5 billion strategic alliance signed in December, with the goal of developing at least 2 GW electrolysis capacity in the UAE by 2030.
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.
Eidesvik Offshore and Wärtsilä will cooperate in the world's first ammonia conversion project, with an existing offshore supply vessel (OSV) to be retrofitted with an ammonia-fueled combustion engine, fuel supply and safety system. The project has a completion date of late 2023. In the engine space, MAN ES has signed a new agreement with Mitsui E&S and Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) to have purchase contracts for its low-speed, ammonia-fueled main vessel engine finalised in 2023.
As reported at Ammonia Energy in May, Abu Dhabi Ports and Helios Industry are developing the UAE's first renewable ammonia plant. The 200,000 tonnes per year, green ammonia facility in Abu Dhabi will be powered by a 800 MW solar farm, with Helios investing $1 billion in the plant's construction. The project has a new partner, with thyssenkrupp signing an agreement to perform a technical feasibility study on a plant based on thyssenkrupp's electrolysis technology.
Itochu will purchase blue ammonia from Abu Dhabi, under a new agreement with OCI NV and ADNOC. Itochu will also team up with Petronas Canada (subsidiary of the Malaysian state energy company) will team up for a feasibility study into a 1 million tonne per year blue ammonia production plant in Alberta.
ADNOC announced this week that it will embark on a joint study with three Japanese organisations – INPEX, JERA, and the government agency JOGMEC – to explore the commercial potential of blue ammonia production in the UAE. Also this week, TAQA Group and Abu Dhabi Ports announced plans for a green ammonia export facility to be based in the Khalifa Industrial Zone Abu Dhabi (KIZAD). A 2 GW solar power plant will power electrolyzers that will feed green hydrogen into the ammonia production facility, with a pipeline to connect the setup to storage tanks at nearby Khalifa Port.
