bp will acquire a 40.5 percent equity stake in and become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub, after reaching an agreement with project partners InterContinental Energy, CWP Global and Macquarie Capital. At full-scale AREH will feature production of up to 9 million tonnes of renewable ammonia per year for export.
Aramco is targeting production of 11 million tonnes per year of low-carbon ammonia by 2030, among a raft of new sustainability goals announced this week. Aramco’s target for renewable energy generating capacity target (12 GW) will be met by its involvement in the new ammonia Supergiant the Saudi Arabia Renewable Energy Hub, but the source of low-carbon ammonia production is not yet clear.
Our latest episode of Maritime Ammonia Insights revealed key details about the Ammonia Bunkering Safety Study currently being undertaken in Singapore. The study is led by the Global Center for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD), with DNV acting as a consulting partner. Lau Wei Jie (GCMD) took us through the high-profile lineup of study partners, and explained how the study aims to develop an extensive technical guideline for ammonia bunkering, similar to TR 56 (which covers LNG bunkering). Dr. Imran Ibrahim (DNV Maritime Advisory), then explained the technical scope of the study, how pilot project sites will be selected, and how the study partners are using previous work from Rotterdam and Oslo to hone their approach. Our audience was eager to understand how this work in Singapore might be applied elsewhere, and keenly awaits the results, which are due for public release in February 2023.
ACME Group and the Government of Karnataka have signed a new MoU for a renewable hydrogen & ammonia project in southwest India. The $7 billion project will feature a 1.2 million tonne per year ammonia plant. Karnataka will sit alongside ACME’s renewable ammonia projects in Rajasthan (pilot-scale) and Oman (mega-scale). In related news, ACME signed a new MoU with NYK Line in late May for the latter to become the “strategic shipping partner” for its ammonia projects.
KEPCO, Samsung C&T, and Korea Western Power will join forces with UAE-based developer Petrolyn Chemie to construct a 200,000 tonne per year renewable ammonia production plant in the KIZAD Industrial Area near Abu Dhabi. The announcement marks the second overseas ammonia project launched by a Korean consortium this year, the first being an export project in Malaysia announced in January.
On the home front for South Korea, a new amendment to the national hydrogen law will see certification of clean hydrogen based entirely on carbon emissions during production, and not technology pathways.
JGC Corporation has entered into a series of new ammonia partnerships. As part of a wider agreement to license KBR’s patented ammonia production technology, a new renewable ammonia pilot plant will be developed near Fukushima. JGC will team up in an “alliance agreement” with TOYO Corporation to develop fuel ammonia production projects and import terminals in Japan. And in Indonesia - where TOYO is currently assessing the feasibility of retrofitting an existing ammonia plant to run entirely on renewable energy - JGC and Indonesia’s national energy organisation Pertamina will collaborate on key decarbonisation projects.
The European Commission has announced its latest plan to reduce the EU’s dependence on fossil imports. RePowerEU will encourage a full switch from fossil-based hydrogen to renewable hydrogen, based on the use of carbon contracts for difference. A hydrogen utilisation target of 20 million tonnes per year has also been set, composed of 10 million tonnes from domestic production and 10 million tonnes of imports. Of these imports, the EU has also forecast 4 million tonnes will be in the form of hydrogen-as-ammonia. The new plan marks a significant increase in ambition from the Fit-for-55 package released in July 2021.
Total has signed a new MoU with the General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE) to develop a renewable ammonia project in Ain Sokhna, Egypt. The first phase targets production of 300,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia per year. SCZONE is now involved with six renewable hydrogen-based projects near the Suez Canal totaling more than $10 billion in investment, and featuring about 1.5 million tonnes of renewable ammonia production in the first phase (expanding to at least 6 million tonnes per year).
Nutrien has announced plans for a $2 billion, million-tonne-per-year CCS ammonia production facility in Geismar, Louisiana. Nutrien will partner with Denbury, who will handle the construction & operation of necessary CCS infrastructure, with permanent underground sequestration to occur. Mitsubishi Corporation has agreed to off take up to 40% of the produced ammonia, which will be exported to the “Asian fuel market”.
The state government of Queensland has signed a new agreement with the Port of Rotterdam to develop an ammonia export supply chain between Australia and the EU. The announcement comes the same week that the Port of Rotterdam authority set a target of supplying industrial centers in northwest Europe with 4.6 million tonnes of hydrogen by 2030 - the vast majority of which will need to be imported. As to the question of when those imports will begin, the Rocky Mountain Institute has released a new report indicating the EU should be ready to receive renewable hydrogen as soon as significant capacity comes online in 2024.