This May, AEA Executive Vice-President Hans Vrijenhoef presented at two events in the Netherlands: the World Hydrogen Summit & the TXF Global Commodity Finance & Sustainable Natural Resources conference. Momentum was clearly on display, with Rotterdam & Africa in the spotlight.
The West Australian state government has allocated land to four organisations as it progresses development of the Pilbara Hydrogen Hub. Fortescue Future Industries, Yara, Hexagon and Perdaman have all been selected to participate, adding to the list of ammonia projects already underway in the region.
The pair will develop an 850,000 tonnes per year renewable ammonia production facility in Queensland, Australia. The ammonia will be used domestically by IPL, exported to Singapore for use in Keppel’s under-development power generation projects, or sold to customers in Asia for energy needs. The source of the renewable hydrogen feedstock will be the nearby Central Queensland hydrogen mega-project. In other news, H2U will collaborate with the local first nations community on its own mega-project in the area: H2-Hub™ Gladstone.
The Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller Center for Zero Carbon Shipping (MMCZCS), RMI, Danish Shipping, and Maersk Oil Trading have released two publications outlining their new Maritime Book & Claim system, which will undergo a pilot later this year. Under the system, ships will be able to ‘book’ emissions associated with individual voyages, which consumers can then ‘claim’. The system seeks to accelerate decarbonisation by empowering green shipping services to find customers offering green premiums, regardless of geographical constraints.
Explore two flexible renewable ammonia production projects in China: Topsoe's in Baotou, and Envision Energy's in Chifeng City. We also welcome the Institute for Sustainable Process Technology to discuss the scale-up of electrolyzer plants to the GW-scale.
The million-tonne-per-year, $8.4 billion renewable hydrogen & ammonia production facility will be built near Al Muwaileh, Saudi Arabia. Project partner Air Products will act as EPC contractor, and has also secured exclusive ammonia offtake rights from NEOM for thirty years.
As Europe is expected to import a significant part of its hydrogen needs, ammonia cracking will play a key role. New results from a pre-feasibility study shed light on important considerations for efficient, safe deployment of industrial scale cracking at Rotterdam. Modernisation of the Netherland’s official ammonia storage and loading guideline also shows that fit-for-purpose regulation will be important to meet the demands of a fast-growing ammonia industry.
New industry partnerships between suppliers, offtakers and existing infrastructure owners will boost confidence for project developers in the fast-growing renewable ammonia industry. Recent announcements from Namibia, Germany and Norway demonstrate that a comprehensive ammonia supply chain is being established between Europe and key global locations, making FID & project investment decisions more straightforward.
World Energy GH2’s Project Nujio’Qonik has a new partner, with SK ecoplant announcing a $50 million investment. Bloom Energy has also announced it will provide solid oxide electrolysis cells for the initial phase of the project. On the other side of Newfoundland, Pattern Energy is developing a renewable hydrogen & ammonia export facility at the Port of Argentia, with exports to Europe to begin from 2025.
State-owned enterprise China Energy has announced new ammonia initiatives in three countries, with a reported budget of $20 billion to invest outside China over the next few years. A partnership with Petrobras in Brazil, construction of a new renewable ammonia mega-project in Morocco, and a construction start date for a renewable ammonia plant next to the Suez Canal in Egypt have all been announced in the last few weeks.