Clean Hydrogen Works, Denbury and Hafnia will jointly develop a world-scale ammonia production project near Donaldsonville, Louisiana. The Ascension Clean Energy (ACE) project will total $7.5 billion in investment and produce 7.1 million tonnes of CCS ammonia per year.
A shipment of thirteen tonnes of CCS-based ammonia has arrived in Hamburg from ADNOC’s al Ruwais ammonia plant near Abu Dhabi. This “demonstration cargo” has been in the works since March this year, when ADNOC signed an agreement with a raft of German organisations, including metals manufacturing giant Aurubis. The ammonia will be trialed as fuel to power copper rod production at Aurubis’ Hamburg smelter.
Amon Maritime has launched a new subsidiary - Amon Offshore - which will build, own and operate a fleet of ammonia-powered platform supply vessels, to operate off Norway’s coast. The new PSV design has already received AiP for ammonia notation from DNV, and preliminary flag approval from Norwegian Maritime Authorities. We also explore two more AiP for ammonia-powered vessels in China: a 16,000 TEU container ship and a 50,000 tonne, mid-range oil/chemical tanker.
Amogy’s ammonia-to-power system will be retrofitted onto a tank barge operated by Southern Devall, a Louisiana-based organisation specialising in bulk chemical and fertiliser transport throughout the Mississippi River and Gulf Intracoastal Waterway System. The retrofit is due to be complete in late 2023, and following successful trials more vessels in Southern Devall’s fleet will be retrofitted to run on ammonia fuel.
The US Department of Agriculture is looking to support small-scale, distributed ammonia & fertilizer production in the US via a new funding program. The Fertilizer Production Expansion Fund aims to help US farmers secure access to cheap, lower-emissions fertilizer, as well as shielding the agricultural industry from price shocks. New & existing projects will be funded to spur competition, with the focus on smaller players.
Recently, KBR launched its Ammonia 10,000 technology for newbuild ammonia plants, tripling the largest available single train capacity to 10,000 metric tonnes per day. In our latest Technology Insights article, we explore the other pieces of the puzzle required for mega-scale ammonia, as well as some updates from the other end of the spectrum, with three distributed, small-scale ammonia synthesis systems under development in North America.
Singapore’s government has launched an official hydrogen strategy for the island nation. Ammonia plays a key role in the maritime sector’s multi-fuel transition, with other direct uses emerging in Singapore’s energy future: fertiliser, industrial feedstock and power generation.
Vopak Singapore will explore options to expand ammonia infrastructure at its Banyan terminal on Jurong Island, Singapore. Vopak has been investigating infrastructure upgrades to enable maritime ammonia bunker fuel in Singapore since 2020, and will invest €1 billion by 2030 into “new energies”, including low-carbon and renewable hydrogen & ammonia. In the Netherlands, Vopak is currently converting two existing refrigerated LPG storage tanks to receive ammonia imports at the North Sea port of Vlissingen.
MHI, Keppel Infrastructure and DNV have agreed to explore the feasibility and deployment of a 100% ammonia-fired gas turbine on Jurong Island, Singapore. In Indonesia, MHI and Bandung Institute of Technology will work together to demonstrate 100% ammonia firing with MHI’s H-25 Series, 40 MW gas turbine.
The governments of Australia and Singapore have signed a new, bilateral trade & energy agreement. Together, the two countries will cooperate on maritime decarbonisation, green corridor development, R&D and the certification of clean hydrogen & ammonia.