German energy company EnBW has acquired a 10% equity stake in the SkiGA project, as well as securing long-term offtake rights to the renewable ammonia produced at the Norwegian facility. SkiGA will be completed in 2026, producing 100,000 tonnes per year of renewable ammonia.
Mitsui & Co., Mitsui Chemicals, IHI Corporation and the Kansai Electric Power Company will explore the establishment of a hydrogen & ammonia supply chain based in Osaka. Ammonia fuel will be used to decarbonise electricity generation, and cracked to provide a feedstock for other industrial processes like steel-making. In South Korea, a similar partnership is evolving between LOTTE and Air Liquide. You can learn more about the emerging nexus between ammonia cracking and steel-making at our upcoming annual conference in Atlanta, USA.
Germany’s updated national hydrogen strategy forecasts that hydrogen demand in the country will skyrocket by 2045, including new demand for hydrogen and ammonia power generation. An auction process ending in 2026 will spur the construction of 4.4 GW of “sprinter” power plants around the country, generating electricity from pure hydrogen or ammonia. This will support the continued integration of renewable energy into Germany’s national grid.
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.
While the opportunity for Australia to become a world-leading exporter of green molecules is well-established, State of Hydrogen 2022 suggests the best progress to date has been made on a domestic opportunity: decarbonisation of existing ammonia production within Australia. Government support for emerging hydrogen hubs, workforce training and regulatory updates are highlighted as key next steps.