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Monolith Materials

Article

More funding for ammonia energy: ReMo & Monolith

ReMo Energy has just closed a successful $5 million seed funding round to develop renewable ammonia production solutions for the US Midwest. Monolith Materials announced a successful funding round of $300 million (investors include BlackRock and Temasek) to further develop its methane pyrolysis technology, expand existing facilities and clear a “deep backlog” of to-be-developed hydrogen & ammonia projects.

Article

Monolith Materials: new deal with Goodyear, $1 billion loan from DoE

Monolith and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (the only US-headquartered tire manufacturer) will cooperate on the potential use of carbon black byproduct from its Olive Creek ammonia plant in Hallam, Nebraska. In relevant news, a $1.04 billion, Title XVII loan from the US Department of Energy has secured Monolith's expansion plans for Olive Creek, which will see it become the largest producer of carbon black in the US by 2025.

Article

IEA publishes Ammonia Technology Roadmap

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published the Ammonia Technology Roadmap, in which the pathway to nitrogen fertilizer production up to 2050 was highlighted. Various scenarios were introduced, ranging from a baseline scenario to a sustainable development scenario (SDS) and a net zero emissions (NZE) by 2050 scenario. Demand, decarbonization costs and technology pathways were all explored in detail.

Article

The Ammonia Wrap: no major obstacles for NoGAPS success and more

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: latest report from NoGAPS, Viking Energy project takes another step, more collaborations for Yara, thyssenkrupp to invest in cracking R&D, investment in clean hydrogen technology in the USA, world-first visualisation of ammonia combustion in a spark-ignition engine and our numbers of the week.

Article

Ammonia Energy Live April: low-carbon innovation at Hazer Group

This April 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 this episode we welcomed Geoff Ward, CEO of the Hazer Group. Hazer has been steadily developing their novel methane pyrolysis technique in Western Australia with a new low-carbon hydrogen production facility to begin construction later this year. Geoff joined us to reflect on Hazer’s journey so far, familiarise our audience with their processes and give his thoughts on what needs to be put in place for similar decarbonisation projects to succeed. And - of course - we asked Geoff where ammonia fits into Hazer’s future plans! Geoff was interviewed by Andrew Dickson (Development Manager of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub at CWP Global), and Darren Jarvis (Vice President of Strategic Project Development at Incitec Pivot).

Article

Japan’s Road Map for Fuel Ammonia

This month, the Japanese Ministry for Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) began promoting an updated Road Map for Fuel Ammonia, focused on the use of ammonia in thermal power plants and as a shipping fuel. By 2030, Japan expects to import 3 million tons of clean ammonia, with demand rising to 30 million tons by 2050. To secure these volumes, Japanese companies are now making investments up and down the supply chain. These are ambitious numbers, matching Japan’s recent commitment to reach net-zero emissions, but still they miss the big picture. The broader economic opportunity arrives when Japanese companies export their fuel ammonia technologies, decarbonizing coal-fired power plants across Asia, and then supply the fuel to these newly sustainable shipping and electricity sectors. By 2050, the METI Road Map expects Japanese trading companies to supply the wider region with 100 million tons per year of clean ammonia.

Article

Certification of low-carbon ammonia: panel wrap-up from the 2020 Ammonia Energy Conference

What are the key considerations that need to be worked through so we can design and implement a certification scheme for low-carbon ammonia that works for a diverse range of stakeholders? On November 17, 2020, the Ammonia Energy Association (AEA) hosted a panel discussion on the topic as part of the recent Ammonia Energy Conference. Not only was it valuable to find out what important players in the ammonia industry want to see in any future certification scheme, but the panel also kicked off a consultation process among AEA members. An audience of around one hundred and fifty producers, end users and researchers all gave their thoughts on what they would like to see in a future scheme, providing a terrific launching point for the AEA Certification Committee to draft, develop and debut a low-carbon ammonia certification scheme.

Article

Carbon intensity of fossil ammonia in a net-zero world

In discussions of carbon capture technology for low-carbon ammonia production, there are two informal rule-of-thumb numbers: 60% and 90%. We know we can capture, at very little additional cost, over 60% of the CO2 from a natural gas-based ammonia plant because this is the process gas (the byproduct of hydrogen production). Many ammonia plants already utilize this pure CO2 stream to produce urea or to sell as food grade CO2. The remaining CO2 emissions are in the much more dilute flue gas (the product of fuel combustion to power the process). For some decades we have assumed we could capture most of this but the lingering question has always been: how much of that flue gas is economically feasible to capture? A team of researchers at Imperial College London has just published a fascinating study into this question, entitled “Beyond 90% capture: Possible, but at what cost?” The paper quantifies the tipping point — ranging from 90% to 99%, depending on flow rates and concentration — beyond which it is easier to capture CO2 directly from the air than it is to capture more flue gas emissions.

Paper

Low Carbon Ammonia via Methane Pyrolysis

Splitting methane into hydrogen and carbon (methane pyrolysis) allows for the utilization of one of the largest energy reserves on our planet (natural gas) without emitting carbon dioxide, since only the hydrogen is oxidized to release energy, while the carbon is permanently sequesters as a solid product often replacing products that have their own GHG emissions. If you split biogenic methane (that produced from the anaerobic digestion of biomass), carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere resulting in a carbon negative process for making hydrogen (and in turn ammonia), and presenting a long term opportunity to begin drawing CO2…

Article

Low-carbon ammonia in Nebraska and the Netherlands

Last week, two new low-carbon ammonia production projects were announced, both of them large-scale and largely CO2-free. Monolith Materials announced a 275,000 ton per year “clean ammonia” plant in Nebraska, in the heart of the US cornbelt. The plant will begin construction in 2021, expanding the existing demonstration plant, using Monolith’s methane pyrolysis process powered by 100% renewable electricity. Ørsted and Yara announced their plan to produce 75,000 tons per year of “green ammonia” at Yara’s existing Sluiskil plant in the Netherlands. They intend to install a 100 MW electrolyzer, using Ørsted’s offshore wind energy, with a final investment decision expected in 2021-2022, and production beginning in 2024-2025.

Article

Methane splitting and turquoise ammonia

Most hydrogen today is produced from fossil fuels – steam methane reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of coal or oil residues – and entails large CO2 emissions. This fossil hydrogen can be called “grey hydrogen”. Or sometimes, brown. The same color scheme applies to the ammonia produced from it, so we have “grey ammonia.” Or brown ammonia, your call. The exact carbon footprint depends on the fuel used and the efficiency of the facility, so you could easily identify many shades of grey. There is, however, another option to deliver clean hydrogen – and now another colour: turquoise, or green-blue (or blue-green). This is the colour of hydrogen from methane pyrolysis, a process that directly splits methane into hydrogen and solid carbon. Instead of being a waste, like CO2, that must be disposed of safely, solid carbon is potentially a resource.

Paper

Monolith Materials: Ammonia Production from Natural Gas Using Pyrolysis

Monolith Materials was founded in 2013 with the vision of converting abundant natural gas resources into valuable products for customers around the world. We have developed a novel electric process for converting natural gas into carbon, in the form of carbon black, and hydrogen, at high yield. Our first commercial unit (15,000 T/y of carbon and 5,000 T/y of hydrogen) is fully financed and under construction. It will come online in 2019. We plan on expanding this facility by adding as many as 30 additional units over the coming years. We are actively pursuing opportunities to increase the value of…

Article

More funding for ammonia energy: ReMo & Monolith

ReMo Energy has just closed a successful $5 million seed funding round to develop renewable ammonia production solutions for the US Midwest. Monolith Materials announced a successful funding round of $300 million (investors include BlackRock and Temasek) to further develop its methane pyrolysis technology, expand existing facilities and clear a “deep backlog” of to-be-developed hydrogen & ammonia projects.

Article

Monolith Materials: new deal with Goodyear, $1 billion loan from DoE

Monolith and Goodyear Tire & Rubber (the only US-headquartered tire manufacturer) will cooperate on the potential use of carbon black byproduct from its Olive Creek ammonia plant in Hallam, Nebraska. In relevant news, a $1.04 billion, Title XVII loan from the US Department of Energy has secured Monolith's expansion plans for Olive Creek, which will see it become the largest producer of carbon black in the US by 2025.

Article

IEA publishes Ammonia Technology Roadmap

Last week, the International Energy Agency (IEA) published the Ammonia Technology Roadmap, in which the pathway to nitrogen fertilizer production up to 2050 was highlighted. Various scenarios were introduced, ranging from a baseline scenario to a sustainable development scenario (SDS) and a net zero emissions (NZE) by 2050 scenario. Demand, decarbonization costs and technology pathways were all explored in detail.

Article

The Ammonia Wrap: no major obstacles for NoGAPS success and more

Welcome to the Ammonia Wrap: a summary of all the latest announcements, news items and publications about ammonia energy. This week: latest report from NoGAPS, Viking Energy project takes another step, more collaborations for Yara, thyssenkrupp to invest in cracking R&D, investment in clean hydrogen technology in the USA, world-first visualisation of ammonia combustion in a spark-ignition engine and our numbers of the week.

Article

Ammonia Energy Live April: low-carbon innovation at Hazer Group

This April 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 this episode we welcomed Geoff Ward, CEO of the Hazer Group. Hazer has been steadily developing their novel methane pyrolysis technique in Western Australia with a new low-carbon hydrogen production facility to begin construction later this year. Geoff joined us to reflect on Hazer’s journey so far, familiarise our audience with their processes and give his thoughts on what needs to be put in place for similar decarbonisation projects to succeed. And - of course - we asked Geoff where ammonia fits into Hazer’s future plans! Geoff was interviewed by Andrew Dickson (Development Manager of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub at CWP Global), and Darren Jarvis (Vice President of Strategic Project Development at Incitec Pivot).

Article

Japan’s Road Map for Fuel Ammonia

This month, the Japanese Ministry for Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI) began promoting an updated Road Map for Fuel Ammonia, focused on the use of ammonia in thermal power plants and as a shipping fuel. By 2030, Japan expects to import 3 million tons of clean ammonia, with demand rising to 30 million tons by 2050. To secure these volumes, Japanese companies are now making investments up and down the supply chain. These are ambitious numbers, matching Japan’s recent commitment to reach net-zero emissions, but still they miss the big picture. The broader economic opportunity arrives when Japanese companies export their fuel ammonia technologies, decarbonizing coal-fired power plants across Asia, and then supply the fuel to these newly sustainable shipping and electricity sectors. By 2050, the METI Road Map expects Japanese trading companies to supply the wider region with 100 million tons per year of clean ammonia.

Article

Certification of low-carbon ammonia: panel wrap-up from the 2020 Ammonia Energy Conference

What are the key considerations that need to be worked through so we can design and implement a certification scheme for low-carbon ammonia that works for a diverse range of stakeholders? On November 17, 2020, the Ammonia Energy Association (AEA) hosted a panel discussion on the topic as part of the recent Ammonia Energy Conference. Not only was it valuable to find out what important players in the ammonia industry want to see in any future certification scheme, but the panel also kicked off a consultation process among AEA members. An audience of around one hundred and fifty producers, end users and researchers all gave their thoughts on what they would like to see in a future scheme, providing a terrific launching point for the AEA Certification Committee to draft, develop and debut a low-carbon ammonia certification scheme.

Article

Carbon intensity of fossil ammonia in a net-zero world

In discussions of carbon capture technology for low-carbon ammonia production, there are two informal rule-of-thumb numbers: 60% and 90%. We know we can capture, at very little additional cost, over 60% of the CO2 from a natural gas-based ammonia plant because this is the process gas (the byproduct of hydrogen production). Many ammonia plants already utilize this pure CO2 stream to produce urea or to sell as food grade CO2. The remaining CO2 emissions are in the much more dilute flue gas (the product of fuel combustion to power the process). For some decades we have assumed we could capture most of this but the lingering question has always been: how much of that flue gas is economically feasible to capture? A team of researchers at Imperial College London has just published a fascinating study into this question, entitled “Beyond 90% capture: Possible, but at what cost?” The paper quantifies the tipping point — ranging from 90% to 99%, depending on flow rates and concentration — beyond which it is easier to capture CO2 directly from the air than it is to capture more flue gas emissions.

Article

Low-carbon ammonia in Nebraska and the Netherlands

Last week, two new low-carbon ammonia production projects were announced, both of them large-scale and largely CO2-free. Monolith Materials announced a 275,000 ton per year “clean ammonia” plant in Nebraska, in the heart of the US cornbelt. The plant will begin construction in 2021, expanding the existing demonstration plant, using Monolith’s methane pyrolysis process powered by 100% renewable electricity. Ørsted and Yara announced their plan to produce 75,000 tons per year of “green ammonia” at Yara’s existing Sluiskil plant in the Netherlands. They intend to install a 100 MW electrolyzer, using Ørsted’s offshore wind energy, with a final investment decision expected in 2021-2022, and production beginning in 2024-2025.

Article

Methane splitting and turquoise ammonia

Most hydrogen today is produced from fossil fuels – steam methane reforming of natural gas, partial oxidation of coal or oil residues – and entails large CO2 emissions. This fossil hydrogen can be called “grey hydrogen”. Or sometimes, brown. The same color scheme applies to the ammonia produced from it, so we have “grey ammonia.” Or brown ammonia, your call. The exact carbon footprint depends on the fuel used and the efficiency of the facility, so you could easily identify many shades of grey. There is, however, another option to deliver clean hydrogen – and now another colour: turquoise, or green-blue (or blue-green). This is the colour of hydrogen from methane pyrolysis, a process that directly splits methane into hydrogen and solid carbon. Instead of being a waste, like CO2, that must be disposed of safely, solid carbon is potentially a resource.

Paper

Low Carbon Ammonia via Methane Pyrolysis

Splitting methane into hydrogen and carbon (methane pyrolysis) allows for the utilization of one of the largest energy reserves on our planet (natural gas) without emitting carbon dioxide, since only the hydrogen is oxidized to release energy, while the carbon is permanently sequesters as a solid product often replacing products that have their own GHG emissions. If you split biogenic methane (that produced from the anaerobic digestion of biomass), carbon dioxide is pulled out of the atmosphere resulting in a carbon negative process for making hydrogen (and in turn ammonia), and presenting a long term opportunity to begin drawing CO2…

Paper

Monolith Materials: Ammonia Production from Natural Gas Using Pyrolysis

Monolith Materials was founded in 2013 with the vision of converting abundant natural gas resources into valuable products for customers around the world. We have developed a novel electric process for converting natural gas into carbon, in the form of carbon black, and hydrogen, at high yield. Our first commercial unit (15,000 T/y of carbon and 5,000 T/y of hydrogen) is fully financed and under construction. It will come online in 2019. We plan on expanding this facility by adding as many as 30 additional units over the coming years. We are actively pursuing opportunities to increase the value of…