Site items in: South America

China Energy: foreign investments in ammonia
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State-owned enterprise China Energy has announced new ammonia initiatives in three countries, with a reported budget of $20 billion to invest outside China over the next few years. A partnership with Petrobras in Brazil, construction of a new renewable ammonia mega-project in Morocco, and a construction start date for a renewable ammonia plant next to the Suez Canal in Egypt have all been announced in the last few weeks.

Hydro-electric ammonia: project design, engineering & technology selection
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To design, build & operate a hydroelectric ammonia production plant fed by electrolytic hydrogen, what considerations need to be taken into account? Our recent episode of Ammonia Project Features explored this question, focusing on an upcoming project being developed in Paraguay by ATOME, URBAS and Casale. The use of surplus hydropower, existing industrial infrastructure, proactive engineering and commercially-available, flexible ammonia synthesis technologies all adds up to a less challenging task for developers, and a potential project template going forward.

Guaranteeing fuel access to ease the transition: Glenfarne & Samsung Engineering
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The Glenfarne – Samsung Engineering partnership plans to deliver renewable ammonia projects in Chile and the US, guaranteeing current LNG customers access to ammonia fuel in the early stages of the energy transition. And, seeking to become a model for future renewable utility companies, PASH and ERIH will form a hydrogen & ammonia joint venture to develop production projects in Italy and Turkey.

Retrofitting vessels for ammonia fuel: new technical study from Grieg Star
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Grieg Star and a series of high-profile maritime consortium partners have assessed the full feasibility for retrofitting a Grieg Star L-Class vessel to run on ammonia fuel. The study concludes that technical & regulatory challenges will not be showstoppers in the transition. A combination of high investment costs, uncertainty over ammonia fuel availability & pricing and slow market development remain the biggest barriers, presenting significant risks for first movers.

HyEx: ammonia from the Chilean desert
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In our latest episode of Ammonia Project Features, Asunción Borras (Engie) and Pablo Wallach (Enaex) presented the HyEx project. Although a historical exporter of nitrogen fertilizers, Chile is now a major importer of ammonia, particularly as a feedstock for manufacturing mining explosives. Solar PV generating potential in Chile’s Atacama desert is among the world’s best, and the HyEx project will leverage this to produce renewable ammonia. By 2030, HyEx could produce enough ammonia to completely replace Enaex’s current ammonia imports, with volume left for exports or other applications.

Ammonia exports from Brazil taking shape
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Casa dos Ventos, Comerc and the Transhydrogen Alliance (THA) will continue development of a 2.2 million-tonne-per-year electrolytic ammonia export project at the Port of Pecém in northern Brazil. The country’s renewables-heavy grid will power 2.4 GW of electrolysis capacity, with exports to Rotterdam to start in 2026. THA founding member Proton Ventures recently selected an engineering partner to perform FEED work for the Pecém plant, and was also awarded a construction contract by OCP Group for two world-scale ammonia storage tanks in Morocco.