Site items in: Policy

The Ammonia Transition: panel wrap-up from the Ammonia Energy Conference
Article

What key challenges lie ahead as ammonia producers embark on the transition to low and zero-carbon ammonia? What are the big producers already doing to smooth and later accelerate this transition? On November 19, 2020, the Ammonia Energy Association (AEA) hosted a panel discussion moderated by Steve Crolius from Carbon Neutral Consulting, as well as panel members Sammy van den Broeck from Yara, Ashraf Malik from CF Industries, and Trevor Williams from Nutrien as part of the recent Ammonia Energy Conference.

Hydrogen Forward, as the United States pivots to clean energy policy
Article

At the start of this month, a coalition of eleven corporations launched a new advocacy body, Hydrogen Forward, with the explicit purpose of lobbying the United States government to pursue a national hydrogen strategy. "While Europe and East Asia have committed to investing hundreds of billions of dollars into hydrogen solutions, the U.S. is the only major market without a national hydrogen strategy. A comprehensive approach is critical because it provides a much-needed framework to enable fast, large-scale adoption."

Europe! (part 3)
Article

The European Commission has added two building blocks to its burgeoning structure of economic and environmental policy initiatives. In separate communications on July 8, the EC announced An EU Strategy for Energy System Integration and A Hydrogen Strategy for a Climate-Neutral Europe. Together the two strategies present a practical pathway toward a sustainable energy economy.

Flattening the climate risks curve
Article

The COVID-19 pandemic is a human tragedy of epic proportions. It directly affects the life and livelihoods of people all around the world as an unprecedented healthcare and economic crisis. It is clear by now that COVID-19 marks an inflection point or “black swan” event in history that will have a shaping influence on society and the economy for many years to come; a post COVID-19 era will begin. In the same way that the developing renewable energy industry significantly benefited from the economic stimulus packages to address the financial crisis of 2008/2009, we now have the opportunity to kick-start the next important phase of global CO2 emissions reduction through support of the developing CO2 Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) & Clean Hydrogen Economy. Many of these clean technologies have been proven at industrial scale and implementation has started. Still, commercial projects will continue to need financial incentives for broad deployment that will enable accelerated technology maturation and reductions in project risk and cost. With the support from COVID-19 stimulus packages, the private sector will be able to execute CCUS & Clean Hydrogen projects in the near-term, secure and create jobs, grow the economy and mitigate the risk of “green swan” climate change events through significant CO2 emissions reduction.

The Role of Carbon Capture and Storage Incentives in Ammonia Fuel Production
Presentation

While the current cost of ammonia produced from hydrogen via steam methane reforming (SMR) of natural gas with carbon capture & storage (CCS) is challenging on an energy basis compared to the price of gasoline, the Clean Air Task Force projects that production of ammonia at optimized, world-scale SMR+CCS facilities could be price-competitive with gasoline in the near future, especially in the right policy environment. Two government programs in the United States—a federal tax incentive known as 45Q and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)—provide immediate and unprecedented opportunities to mitigate the cost premium associated with certain hydrogen production systems.…

Targets, Limits, Pledges, Bans: Enforcing the Transition to Sustainable Energy
Article

In the last 12 months ... California passed a law mandating 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045; then its governor announced that the state's entire energy system - not just its electricity - would be carbon-neutral by 2045. The Hydrogen Council announced its "goal of decarbonizing 100% of hydrogen fuel used in transport by 2030." The International Maritime Organization set targets for the global shipping sector to “reduce the total annual GHG emissions by at least 50% by 2050,” and completely “phase them out, as soon as possible in this century,” and these targets were swiftly endorsed by the International Chamber of Shipping. Regulators and self-regulating organizations around the world are enforcing systemic decarbonization and accelerating the transition to a hydrogen economy.

Introducing the Global NH3 Fuel Federation
Presentation

Until recently, ammonia fuel was the focus of a few dozen individuals working in isolated groups. Institutional interest and support were limited at best. Now we are in a new stage: ammonia fuel is being investigated seriously in publicly and privately supported programs in most of the world’s leading economies. The NH3 Fuel Association has been engaged in informal conversations over the last year about how to respond to this very significant trend. The conclusion is that it is time to launch an initiative that can engender a higher level of mutual awareness, communication, and support across all of the…

Piloting a Combined Heat and Power / Distributed Generation System, Powered by Carbon-Free, Renewable-Based Anhydrous Ammonia
Presentation

UCLA-STPP is an interdisciplinary science / policy research unit, enjoining faculty in schools of engineering, public health, law, business, and medicine. The two-part mission of UCLA-STPP is to: (1) evaluate the viability of safer, cleaner, greener, more sustainable substitutes for existing hazardous services, processes, systems, and/or technologies, and (2) employ diffusion analysis to identify institutional, policy, and regulatory barriers to the adoption of viable safer substitutes and prescribe policy changes to overcome key barriers. UCLA-STPP has taken leadership in developing and institutionalizing “alternatives analysis” as policy/regulatory tool as a method to evaluate and identify safer, cleaner, greener, more sustainable substitutes.…