The European Commission has approved a €122 million Lithuanian state grant to support AB AChema to decarbonise fertiliser production at its existing facility in Kaunas. A 171 MW electrolysis plant will be installed, producing enough renewable hydrogen to displace 30% of the current, gas-based feedstock used at the site.
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.
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.
Ireland-based Phelan has announced it will develop a $2.4 billion hydrogen and ammonia production project in Peru, based on solar energy generation in the Arequipa region. The project will initially produce 440,000 tons per year of renewable ammonia, with scale up plans already in place to boost production to 1 million tons capacity.
More than $37 billion will be invested across the initial stages of hydrogen and ammonia production projects, ranging in location from the Gulf of Suez to west of the Nile Delta. A series of agreements concerning existing and newly-announced projects were signed at the recent Egypt-EU Investment Conference.
The new loan from the World Bank will go towards programs that support the production of hydrogen via electrolysis, as well as the manufacture of electrolyser units themselves. In June 2023, an initial $1.5 billion was provided from the World Bank to assist implementation of key hydrogen policy measures in India.
Sungrow Hydrogen will provide alkaline electrolysers for a new hydrogen and ammonia project in Jilin province. China Energy Engineering Corporation is leading development of the project, which will produce 600,000 tons of renewable ammonia each year. In Inner Mongolia, construction has begun on a similar-sized plant, which will produce ammonia from wind and solar energy.
Spain-based FRV will develop a new $5 billion renewable hydrogen and ammonia project at the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex. At full capacity, 1.6 million tons of ammonia per year will be produced. FRV is now one of six organisations that have signed agreements with the state government of Ceará to develop production projects.
Yara’s newly commissioned plant at Herøya Industrial Park will produce 10 tons per day of renewable hydrogen, enabling the production of 20,000 tons of renewable ammonia per year.
Approved by the national cabinet, the draft law aims to create a legal framework for rapid development and expansion of hydrogen infrastructure, including ammonia import and cracking facilities. Relevant planning, approval and procurement procedures will be simplified and digitalized where possible, and projects covered by the Act will also be considered in the “overriding public interest”, with some important caveats. Germany’s national cabinet also approved a CCS Act this month, aimed at decarbonising hard-to-abate industrial processes.