Topsoe to provide technology for first commercial size dynamic green ammonia plant in China
20 January 2023
Topsoe has been chosen by Mintal Hydrogen to provide technology to the first dynamic green ammonia plant in China. The dynamic green ammonia plant is Topsoe’s first Power-to-X project in China and includes Topsoe’s process licensing, engineering design package, proprietary equipment, and catalysts.
The first phase will have a capacity of 1800 tons per day (390,000 tpa) with expected start of production in 2025. The green ammonia will replace approximately 850,000 tons of coal and help reduce more than 2 million tons of CO2 from being emitted to the atmosphere every year, along with 6.4 tons of sulfur dioxide, 3.2 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 3.2 tons of smoke and dust.
We are excited to partner with Topsoe, as they are the leading provider of technology for ammonia production and low carbon solutions in general. Establishing a commercial size green ammonia plant in Baotou, really is a breakthrough in China for producing carbon neutral fuels and chemicals. Naturally, we are very pleased, that we are now able to start construction of this landmark project, that will support China’s move to a greener economy.
—XiaoLong Fu, General Manager, Mintal Hydrogen
Topsoe will provide the plant’s dynamic ammonia technology to secure optimal production and adapt to the inherent fluctuations in power output from wind turbines. The clean power from wind turbines will be connected directly to the electrolysis unit making it more cost-effective than if involving a hydrogen storage.
Inner Mongolia is very rich in wind energy resources, and Mintal Hydrogen estimates that the areas wind resources has the potential of being developed into a total output capacity of 150 gigawatt. This corresponds to 40% of the available wind energy resources in China.
Mintal Hydrogen Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is established by Mintal Group. Mintal Group was founded in 2005, is active within the metallurgical industry and is an advanced high carbon ferrochrome producer in China. The company is headquartered in Beijing with plants in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.
To deal with curtailment UHT electrical transmission lines are the preferred alternative by those who do not fancy hydrogen and ammonia in remote sites.
China is the undoubted leader in this technology, but its introduction has been far from hassle free.
This is a rather old article on the issue:
https://chinadialogue.net/en/energy/10376-sparks-fly-over-ultra-high-voltage-power-lines/
If anyone has more up to date stuff, it would be appreciated.
Some of the issues raised also apply to using hydrogen or ammonia, with fights between central and local government etc, but the tech is far from the slam-dunk advocates often present it as.
And once it is in the form of ammonia, it is a lot easier to transport, with power line construction being a major disruption.
Posted by: Davemart | 20 January 2023 at 01:07 AM
I've found some more details here:
https://www.hydrogeninsight.com/production/chinese-green-ammonia-plant-will-be-powered-directly-by-variable-wind-power-without-any-battery-or-hydrogen-storage/2-1-1390811
This is interesting for a number of reasons.
' Topsoe manufactures its own solid-oxide electrolysers, but will not be supplying them to this project, which will use alkaline machines sourced from a third party.'
Efficiency is going to be less than the stonking efficiency Topsoe Haldor get from their SOEC, but I am very surprised to learn that using an alkaline electrolyser they are able to:
' That technology is able to produce ammonia from nitrogen in the air and hydrogen and while adapting to the “inherent fluctuations in power output from wind turbines”, without any battery or hydrogen storage.'
As alkaline electrolysers were, at least traditionally, far less able to ramp up and down than PEM in particular.
This is outside of the performance envelope which I had thought possible, unless they are simply dumping the excess.
Far lower electrolyser costs in China than in the West mean that they can be economic only running a small part of the time, but they still have to be switched on and off, so perhaps there has been progress in enabling that.
Posted by: Davemart | 21 January 2023 at 01:18 AM
Far lower electrolyser costs in China than in the West mean that they can be economic only running a small part of the time, but they still have to be switched on and off, so perhaps there has been progress in enabling that.
The Topsoe Renewable Dynamic Distributed Ammonia Plant (REDDAP) permits the flexible ammonia plant to operate from 5% to 100% load without a hydrogen storage.
Chinese alkaline electrolyzers are up to four times cheaper than Western equivalents — $300/kW compared to $1,200/kW.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/green-hydrogen-alkaline-electrolyzer-chinese-vs-european-kumar?trk=articles_directory
And as the GCC post states: “ The green ammonia will replace approximately 850,000 tons of coal and help reduce more than 2 million tons of CO2 from being emitted to the atmosphere every year, along with 6.4 tons of sulfur dioxide, 3.2 tons of nitrogen oxides, and 3.2 tons of smoke and dust.”
Posted by: Gryf | 21 January 2023 at 09:11 AM