Electrolysis-based ammonia production peaked worldwide around 1970, before the economies of scale and cheap gas feedstock led to its decline. With decarbonization and climate-neutral industrial processes now a critical priority, electrolysis-based ammonia production has re-emerged as a long-term solution. From a base of 10,000 tonnes per year worldwide production in 2020, as much as 100 million tonnes per year of electrolysis-based ammonia could be produced by the end of this decade, driven by a dramatic roll-out of renewable energy generation and installed electrolyzer capacity.

JERA has signed MoUs this week with two significant ammonia producers, potentially securing the supply of one million tonnes of clean ammonia fuel to Japan each year from 2027. JERA has signed exploratory agreements for 500,000 tonnes of clean ammonia fuel each with CF Industries and Yara Clean Ammonia, and will also explore investment options in greenfield mega-projects on the US Gulf Coast.

This week we explore three new partnerships for CCS-based ammonia production in the USA:

• CF Industries, ExxonMobil & EnLink Midstream, for decarbonisation of the Donaldsonville production plant in Louisiana.
• Air Liquide, Chevron, LyondellBasell, and Uniper for a new production facility on the Gulf Coast.
• And Tallgrass & Equinor for the potential production of hydrogen and ammonia across the USA, leveraging Tallgrass’ existing infrastructure network.

New US CCS ammonia announcements include: a new million-tonne-per-year facility for OCI in Texas, a new $2 billion production facility for CF Industries and Mitsui & Co. in Louisiana, multi-million-tonnes-per-year of production output for JERA, ConocoPhillips and Uniper on the Gulf Coast spread over multiple export projects, and FID reached for OCI’s decarbonisation project in Iowa.

This week we explore three announcements on the US Gulf Coast:

• North American pipeline giant Enbridge will join forces with Humble Midstream to develop a low-carbon ammonia export project near Corpus Christi, Texas. The project will be built within the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center, currently the largest crude oil storage and export terminal in the US.
• Talos Energy, Chevron and Carbonvert will jointly develop the Bayou Bend CCS project in eastern Texas, where 275 million tonnes of carbon emissions could potentially be sequestered beneath the sea bed.
• And more details have emerged about CF Industries’ joint CCS ammonia project with Mitsui. The greenfield facility is expected to cost around $2 billion, and will produce between 1 - 1.4 million tonnes of ammonia per year.

Mitsui & Co. and CF Industries will jointly develop a greenfield facility that will produce CCS ammonia on the US Gulf Coast. The partners are targeting a reduction of at least 60% emissions compared to conventional ammonia production, with ammonia production to begin by 2027 at the earliest.

LSB Industries’ existing El Dorado ammonia production plant will be retrofitted to allow capture and sequestration of CO₂ emissions as part of a new partnership with Lapis Energy. Once operational in 2025, more than 375,000 tonnes CCS ammonia will be produced per year - about 75% of El Dorado’s total ammonia production capacity. El Dorado becomes the third publicly announced CCS ammonia plant in the US, with CF Industries and Air Products announcing projects last year.

CF Industries' Board has approved $285 million of investment into blue ammonia production at two of its US plants - Donaldsonville and Yazoo City. By 2024 the new works will enable annual production of 1.25 million tonnes blue ammonia. Once finished, the units could sequester up to 2.5 million tons of CO2 per year (2 million tons at Donaldsonville and 500,000 tons at Yazoo City).

This week: Mitsui & Co., CF Industries team up to explore blue ammonia opportunities (and to link up US and Japan), CCS hydrogen in Pennsylvania, and the Infrastructure Bill.

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: the world's largest ammonia manufacturing complex begins decarbonising, a call for green hydrogen projects in Chile, new maritime decarbonisation forecast from MAN ES, decarbonised shipping at the Biden climate summit and Fertilizers Europe welcomes the new Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: green ammonia from Haldor Topsøe and Aquamarine, "Transhydrogen Alliance", Origin Energy signs deal with Korean steel maker POSCO, Japanese electric utilities move towards ammonia, new funding for CF Industries low-carbon fertiliser in the UK, Japanese partners to study Indonesian blue ammonia output and Namibia's national hydrogen & ammonia strategy.

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: OCI to charter ammonia-fueled vessels, new carbon-free maritime fuels forecast, Hokkaido Electric postpones CCGT deployment, awaits ammonia, more green ammonia for Chile, Net-zero Teesside to include CF Industries ammonia production, South Korea and Uruguay.

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.

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."

Hydrogen has emerged as a leading clean energy source to help the world achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Ammonia is one of the most efficient ways to transport and store hydrogen and is also a fuel in its own right. CF is the world’s largest producer of ammonia and is uniquely positioned, with an unparalleled asset base and technical knowledge, to serve this anticipated demand. We are announcing our commitment to decarbonize the world’s largest ammonia production network, positioning CF at forefront of clean hydrogen supply. We have also announced a new green ammonia project at our Donaldsonville Nitrogen…

The ammonia industry is transitioning towards sustainability at remarkable speed. In the last week alone, three major project announcements signal the availability of millions of tons of low-carbon ammonia this decade, and enthusiasm for rapid and complete transformation of the industry. Decarbonizing ammonia is no longer viewed as a challenge — now, this is quite clearly an opportunity.