Amogy, a developer of energy-dense ammonia power solutions (earlier post), and Trafigura, one of the largest physical commodity trading groups in the world, are partnering to study the use of ammonia as a carrier to transport clean hydrogen from point of production to point of consumption. The findings of this... Read more →

Woodside Energy; Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC); Marubeni Corporation; Hokuriku Electric Power Company; The Kansai Electric Power Co.; Tohoku Electric Power Co.; and Hokkaido Electric Power Co. signed a joint research agreement under which they will jointly conduct a feasibility study (Phase 2) on the establishment of... Read more →

ENGIE has taken the Final Investment Decision in the development of one of the world’s first industrial-scale renewable hydrogen projects, to be located in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Scheduled for completion in 2024, the first phase of the Yuri project will produce up to 640 tonnes of renewable... Read more →

Israel-based GenCell Energy, a provider of hydrogen and ammonia to power fuel cell solutions, launched GenCell EVOX, a new off-grid EV charging solution that leverages alkaline fuel cells, hydrogen and ammonia to power technologies. The solution has been designed to resolve range anxiety and grid limitations by generating green, grid-independent,... Read more →

Topsoe and green ammonia early-mover First Ammonia have entered into a capacity reservation agreement to kickstart the global market for green ammonia. Topsoe’s energy-efficient solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC) will be installed in First Ammonia’s green ammonia plants around the world in the coming years. The agreement provides for an... Read more →

Authorities have approved testing with ammonia at the Alfa Laval Test & Training Center. When installation of the testing setup is completed by the end of 2022, the center will be able to work with all fuels in consideration as the marine industry decarbonizes. Just as it has for LNG,... Read more →

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (ADNOC’s) first shipment of low-carbon ammonia recently left the United Arab Emirates (UAE) bound for Hamburg, Germany. This is the first cargo of low-carbon ammonia to be shipped to Germany. Low-carbon ammonia is made from nitrogen and hydrogen derived from natural gas feedstocks, with the... Read more →

JERA & Uniper are collaborating to facilitate the development of the initial production of 2 MTPA of clean ammonia with expansion potential up to 8 MTPA, to accelerate the production and supply of zero-carbon fuels from the US for use in the US, Europe, Japan, and greater Asia. The proposed... Read more →

Researchers at Tianjin University have proposed a reactivity controlled turbulent jet ignition (RCTJI) based on a newly air-assisted pre-chamber turbulent jet ignition with a scavenging function to improve the reactivity in the pre-chamber. In an open-access paper in the journal Fuel, they report that RCTJI with scavenged TJI can effectively... Read more →

Amogy Inc., a developer of energy-dense ammonia power solutions (earlier post), and Amon Maritime, an ammonia-powered shipping and technology company, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to advance carbon-free, ammonia power solutions for the global shipping industry. Amon Maritime is solely focused on commercializing ammonia as fuel in several shipping... Read more →

South Africa-based Sasol and Japan-based ITOCHU Corporation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) jointly to study and to develop the market and supply chain for green ammonia with a focus on its use as bunkering fuel and for power generation. The parties will also evaluate ITOCHU’s potential involvement and... Read more →

H2Carrier is the designer and owner of the proprietary floating energy production and storage system P2XFloater—the first industrial-scale floating green hydrogen and ammonia facility of its kind in the world. The concept is based on proven floating production, storage and off-take technologies combined with an e-control system capable of balancing... Read more →

Syzygy Plasmonics, LOTTE Chemical and LOTTE Fine Chemical (LOTTE Chemical HQ), and Sumitomo Corporation of Americas (SCOA) announced a joint development agreement to test a photocatalytic reactor for clean hydrogen production. The reactor will be installed and brought online in the second half of 2023 at LOTTE Chemical HQ facilities... Read more →

India’s Avaada Group signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Department of Industries and Commerce, Government of Rajasthan to set up a green ammonia facility with a production capacity of 1 million tons per annum and a renewable energy power plant in Kota, Rajasthan. The MoU, signed as part... Read more →

SK E&S and SK Plug Hyverse—a joint venture (JV) formed in January of this year by SK E&S and Plug Power—will work with Korea Southeast Power Generation (KOEN) to cooperate with green hydrogen and green ammonia projects based on renewable energy resources in Korea and abroad. SK E&S signed a... Read more →

Although the thermocatalytic ammonia decomposition reaction (ADR) is an effective way to obtain clean hydrogen, it relies on the use of expensive and rare ruthenium (Ru)-based catalysts, making it not sustainable or economically feasible. Now, a team from the University at Buffalo, Southern Illinois University, University of South Carolina and... Read more →

A team at the Colorado School of Mines has developed a catalytic membrane reformer (CMR) for the efficient generation of hydrogen (H2) and ammonia (NH3) fuel mixtures. A fraction of the ammonia is decomposed, and the released hydrogen is extracted through a membrane, where it combines with the remaining ammonia,... Read more →

PaxOcean Engineering Pte. Ltd. has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Singapore-based bunker vessel operator Hong Lam Marine and classification society Bureau Veritas (BV) jointly to develop an ammonia bunker vessel design. With the signing of this MOU, PaxOcean will focus on developing designs for ammonia-fueled and ammonia bunkering... Read more →

Researchers at Monash University in Australia have developed an electrochemical process for the conversion of nitrogen to ammonia with nearly 100% current-to-ammonia efficiency. A paper on their work is published in the journal Nature. Beyond its use in the fertiliser and chemical industries, ammonia is currently seen as a potential... Read more →

The General Authority for Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZONE), The Sovereign Fund of Egypt (TSFE), The Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), The New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) and India-based ReNEW Power company have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to establish a project to produce green fuels; the investment... Read more →

ACWA Power, a leading Saudi developer, investor and operator of power generation, desalinated water and green hydrogen plants worldwide, has signed a memorandum of understanding with POSCO Holdings, the holding company of South Korea’s POSCO Group. The agreement will involve the joint development of green hydrogen and its derivatives such... Read more →

The Yuchai YCK16H hydrogen-fueled engine was successfully ignited in Yulin, Guangxi. The engine, with a displacement of 15.93 liters and a maximum horsepower of 560 hp, is the largest hydrogen-fueled engine with the largest displacement and horsepower in China. The YCK16H adopts advanced fuel high-pressure common rail, high-pressure in-cylinder direct... Read more →

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), Tsuneishi Shipbuilding, and Mitsui E&S Shipbuilding launched a joint project aimed at developing and building an ocean-going liquefied gas carrier that will use ammonia as its main fuel. Ammonia-fueled Ocean-going Vessel The vessel is envisioned as a mid-size ammonia/LPG carrier equipped with a main engine that... Read more →

bp will acquire a 40.5% equity stake in and to become operator of the Asian Renewable Energy Hub (AREH), which has the potential to be one of the largest renewables and green hydrogen hubs in the world. Based on the development of world-scale renewable power generation, AREH, in the Pilbara... Read more →

WinGD and Hyundai Heavy Industries’ Engine Machinery Division (EMD) are to collaborate on delivering the first WinGD engine capable of running on ammonia. Under an MOU (Memo of Understanding) signed during the Posidonia exhibition on 7 June, the two parties will aim to deliver a first engine by 2025, in... Read more →

Korea-based SK innovation has invested $30 million in ammonia-based fuel cell startup Amogy (earlier post); the two also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on technical cooperation, and agreed to cooperate to develop ammonia-based fuel cell system technology and expand the market. Amogy, established in 2020, is focused on producing... Read more →

Canada-based Nutrien Ltd. is evaluating Geismar, LA as the site to build the world’s largest clean ammonia facility. Building on the company’s expertise in low-carbon ammonia production, clean ammonia will be manufactured using innovative technology to achieve at least a 90% reduction in CO2 emissions. Source: Nutrien The project will... Read more →

An international team of researchers has shed light on one way new particles are forming in the upper troposphere. The open-access study, published in Nature, reveals an unexpected volatile reaction between nitric acid, sulfuric acid, and ammonia, synergistically creating new particles at a rapid rate. The findings suggest that in... Read more →

The US Department of Energy (DOE) will award $24.9 million in funding for six research and development projects to support the advancement of clean hydrogen for electricity generation. This includes improving capture of CO2 associated with hydrogen production from carbon-based resources and technologies to use hydrogen in gas turbines more... Read more →

A development team from CoorsTek Membrane Sciences, in collaboration with international research partners, have successfully used ceramic membrane technology to develop a scalable hydrogen generator that makes hydrogen from electricity and fuels including natural gas, biogas and ammonia with near zero energy loss. A paper on the work is published... Read more →

The US price of ammonia, the primary source of nitrogen fertilizer, has risen by a factor of six in the past two years, and most of these increases have occurred since March 2021, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Ammonia prices generally follow natural gas prices because ammonia... Read more →

Following a three-month feasibility study, Aviation H2—an Australian-owned company seeking to achieve net-zero emissions in the aerospace sector through green hydrogen—has selected the use of liquid ammonia to turbofan combustion as the best route to carbon-free flight and will soon start modifying turbofan engines to test and prove the concept.... Read more →

Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) and Seaborg signed a partnership agreement to develop floating nuclear power plants based on Seaborg’s inherently safe Compact Molten Salt Reactor (CMSR). The floating nuclear power plant comes as a turn-key product, ready to be moored at an industrial harbor. In the harbor, a transmission cable... Read more →

Blending ammonia with a small amount of dimethyl ether (DME) gives a liquid fuel with low-temperature combustion properties very similar to gasoline, researchers at KAUST have shown. The development of such fuels could provide an option—in addition to electric cars—for “clean” power for the transportation sector. A paper on their... Read more →

A consortium of shipping stakeholders aims to develop demonstrators for two-stroke and four-stroke marine engines running on ammonia fuel. The Ammonia 2-4 project seeks to advance viable concepts for ammonia fuel. The project is coordinated by technology group Wärtsilä, with participation from naval architects C-Job, classification society DNV, ship owner... Read more →

Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha (NYK), MTI, and Elomatic Oy, a Finnish maritime consulting and engineering firm, have completed the development of a concept design for an ammonia-fuel ready LNG-fueled vessel (ARLFV) for the transition to a future marine fuel. NYK and MTI have established the long-term target of net-zero emissions... Read more →

SINTEF Energy Research and ECONNECT Energy have developed a novel computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling tool to predict LNG, ammonia and liquid carbon dioxide flow rates in floating, flexible cryogenic pipes. The tool will be used to better understand flow rates in floating pipe technology with various pressure and temperature... Read more →

Researchers at Hiroshima University have greatly improved the performance of ammonia (NH3) synthesis via the chemical looping process of lithium hydride by using a lithium oxide (Li2O) scaffold to improve the reaction kinetics. In a paper published in The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, the Hiroshima team reports that with... Read more →

Yara signed a contract with Linde Engineering for the construction and delivery of a green hydrogen demonstration plant at Yara’s ammonia production facility at Herøya Industripark in Porsgrunn, Norway. The project, which is supported by a NOK 283 million (US$31.5 million) grant from Enova (announced in December 2021), will demonstrate... Read more →

Classification Society ClassNK has issued an Approval in Principle (AiP) for the design of an ammonia-fueled Panamax bulk carrier developed by Planning and Design Center for Greener Ships (GSC). GSC was formed in 2020 by nine shipbuilders and ClassNK Ammonia is expected to be used as decarbonized fuel for ships... Read more →

Sumitomo Corporation will launch a full-scale project to design and develop an ammonia-fueled dry bulk carrier jointly with Oshima Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. The ship is expected to be 229m in length, with a beam of 32m and deadweight of 80,0000-81,000MT. Speed is to be 14.3 knots. A dry bulk carrier... Read more →

Researchers at the at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research (Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung) report the mechanocatalytic synthesis of ammonia over a cesium-promoted iron catalyst under mild conditions—room temperature and pressures down to 1 bar. Ammonia synthesis via the Haber-Bosch process normally requires temperatures of 400-500 °C and pressures of... Read more →

By disrupting normal societal activities such as driving, COVID-19 lockdowns afforded a unique opportunity to study their impacts on the environment. Researchers now report in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters that satellite data from before and during the spring 2020 lockdown in Los Angeles shows that vehicles, rather than... Read more →

Swiss engine designer WinGD, a leading developer of two-stroke low-speed gas and diesel engines used for propulsion power in merchant shipping, said that its engines will be able to run on methanol and ammonia from 2024 and 2025 respectively. WinGD’s multi-fuel solutions will be based on its well-established diesel-fueled X... Read more →

A combined experimental and computational study published in Nature Catalysis shows promising results for a new class of catalysts producing ammonia under mild conditions. The production of ammonia amounts to about 200 megatons per year. This makes it the second-most produced chemical in the world, surpassed only by sulfuric acid.... Read more →

A research team at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has identified a new way to convert ammonia to nitrogen gas through a process that could be a step toward ammonia replacing carbon-based fuels. The discovery of this technique, which uses a metal catalyst and releases—rather than requires—energy, was reported in Nature... Read more →

KazMunayGas, the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan, and the technology company Linde have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate and develop jointly clean energy projects in Kazakhstan. The first stage of cooperation will focus on exploring the opportunity of producing hydrogen and ammonia using natural gas as... Read more →

Haldor Topsoe will deliver its blue ammonia technology for Air Products’ recently announced $4.5-billion clean energy complex in Louisiana. (Earlier post.) Air Products will build, own and operate the megaproject, which will produce more than 750 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCFD) of blue hydrogen in Ascension Parish, Louisiana.... Read more →

The technology group Wärtsilä and Norwegian ship owner Eidesvik Offshore ASA have signed a cooperation agreement aimed at converting an offshore supply vessel (OSV) to operate with an ammonia-fueled combustion engine with required fuel supply and safety system. This project will be the first of its kind and has a... Read more →

Höegh Autoliners entered into a Letter of Intent (LoI) with China Merchants Heavy Industry (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. (CMHI) to build a series of its multi-fuel and ammonia-ready Aurora class vessels. Under the terms of the LoI, the first two vessels will be delivered in the second half of 2024. The... Read more →