Blue Ammonia
Ammonia (NH3) is a chemical compound that is important to the global fertilizer industry.
Apart from fertilizers, ammonia has a variety of other uses - in pharmaceuticals, textiles, cleaning products and for wastewater treatment. The production of ammonia is a lucrative market valued at $72.8 billion during 2021, according to the Ammonia Market 2021 report.
Ammonia is an inorganic compound, which is a term for chemicals that do not contain both carbon and hydrogen.
Ammonia is produced through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and nitrogen at high pressure and temperature of 450 degrees Celsius:
- Ammonia manufactured using 'blue' hydrogen is called 'blue' ammonia,
- Ammonia manufactured using 'green' hydrogen is called 'green' ammonia, and
- Ammonia produced using 'grey' hydrogen is called 'grey' ammonia.
Ammonia production is highly energy-intensive – the process accounts for up to 2 per cent of energy consumption and 3 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide. The process also uses up to 5 per cent of global gas consumption.
The decarbonization of ammonia production is an integral part of the global transition to net-zero emissions by 2050.
With the surge of interest in hydrogen as a fuel, ammonia has become an easily transportable way to store it.
Hydrogen and ammonia are stored in liquid form, hydrogen requiring cryogenic tanks maintained at -253 oC, while ammonia requires less cooling and can be stored at around -33 oC.
Carrying ammonia has advantages over hydrogen in that it is liquid at ambient conditions, requiring lower storage volumes.
Hydrogen, a clean-burning fuel with no carbon emissions, can be obtained by reconverting ammonia into the gas to use in applications such as fuel cells for cars.
As investment pours into developing blue and green hydrogen in the world, ammonia produced in this manner could become a viable fuel source for the future.
Blue ammonia is seen as a useful fuel for power industrial heating, heavy road transport and shipping.
Hydrogen can be used as a fuel for shipping or other purposes; however, the sophisticated cooling equipment and mitigation of hazards make hydrogen expensive to transport.
The costs of hydrogen transportation may be reduced by manufacturing ammonia from hydrogen at the source, transporting the resulting ammonia and then reforming back to hydrogen at the destination, but more work is needed to calculate this cost reduction.
Ammonia is a global commodity with transparent pricing, so a market already exists. The bulk of current supply is ‘grey’ ammonia (manufactured using ‘grey’ hydrogen).
To put the high-level and seasoned consultants, subject matter experts (SME), of the A&A Consulting Team, and collaborators, to work on your company's challenging Blue Hydrogen/ Ammonia projects, please Contact Us.
