bp and ARENA's eighteen-month feasibility study into the Geraldton Export-Scale Renewable Investment (GERI) project wrapped up this week - with encouraging results. The two organisations conclude that "Western Australia is an ideal place to develop large scale renewable energy assets that can in turn produce green hydrogen and/or green ammonia for domestic and export markets".
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.
In early June, Itochu was part of a group of 23 founding signatories that kicked off a joint study into the feasibility of ammonia as a maritime fuel. This week that group has grown to 34. It now includes significant stakeholders from a diverse range of sectors: energy, mining, steel, power utility, chemicals manufacturing & distribution, shipbuilding, maritime terminals, maritime classification societies and of course maritime fuel production, supply & distribution.
Canadian organisation AmmPower signed a new MoU this week with Porto Central - a consortium currently developing an industrial, deep water port complex in Brazil. Under the agreement, AmmPower will develop a port-adjacent green ammonia production facility, as well as associated transport and distribution infrastructure.
Woodside Energy, JOGMEC, Marubeni and two Japanese power utilities signed a joint research agreement this week to investigate the feasibility of a blue ammonia supply chain between Australia and Japan.
ECONNECT Energy and Amon Maritime launched a new joint venture this week – Azane Fuel Solutions. According to the official press release, the new organisation aims to fill a current gap in the ammonia fuel value chain by developing new floating and shore-based ammonia ship bunkering infrastructure technology.
In December last year DEME Concessions and OQ announced their new HYPORT® Duqm green ammonia project. The 250 - 500 MW facility (in the first instance) will harness wind and solar energy to produce green ammonia, which could then be easily exported from the adjacent port. This week DEME and OQ took another step by signing a key cooperation agreement with Uniper. The global energy giant will provide engineering services and negotiate an exclusive off-take agreement of green ammonia.
This May we presented a new episode in our monthly webinar series: Ammonia Energy Live. Every month we’ll explore the wonderful world of ammonia energy and the role it will play in global decarbonisation - with an Australian twist. For May’s episode we welcomed Sarah Tincknell, Stakeholder and Regulatory Manager of the Future Fuels Division at Origin Energy. Sarah joined us to share some of the experiences and learnings Origin Energy has gone through on its decarbonisation journey to date, and give us some insights into what emissions reduction looks like at an electricity generator and retailer. And, of course, we wanted to find out where ammonia and hydrogen fit into Origin's long term plans for decarbonisation. Sarah was interviewed by Emily Heenan, (Process Engineer, also in the Future Fuels Division at Origin), and Jacinta Bakker (Senior Research Coordinator at Jupiter Ionics).
Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. There's so much news this edition that we're bringing you two, special Wrap articles. Our second focuses on maritime ammonia & supply chain development. This week: Bureau Veritas releases "Ammonia-Prepared" notation, Höegh Autoliners' ammonia-powered car-carrier to hit the water by 2023, Yara and JERA to collaborate, Japan's Kobe Port moves towards hydrogen and ammonia, New partners for Itochu/Vopak study in Singapore, and a new Voltachem ammonia study shows need for cross-border cooperation in EU.