Tag: Ammonia

Fertiberia’s Puertollano green hydrogen plant was officially inaugurated by Spain’s King Felipe VI in May 2023. The 20MW capacity unit will produce up to 3,000 tonnes of renewable hydrogen annually.

In our May/June issue I discussed the race to be the next major green shipping fuel, in which methanol and ammonia both remain significant contenders, but which methanol appeared to be pulling ahead in. But more recently, a few stories from the past few weeks have left me not quite as sure as I was about that. Firstly, there’s the news in our Syngas News section this issue that the FlagshipONE green methanol project in Sweden is being delayed and possibly abandoned, because demand for green methanol for shipping has not actually materialised as fast as was anticipated.

With green ammonia from renewable energy facing cost hurdles to adoption, thoughts have turned to using nuclear energy as a carbon free alternative.

In China, domestic prices are expected to come under significant downward pressure, with seaborne indications already following suit, with buyers said to have rejected offers around the $375/t c.fr mark.

OCI Global says that it has reached an agreement for the sale of 100% of its equity interests in its Clean Ammonia project currently under construction in Beaumont, Texas for $2.35 billion on a cash and debt free basis. The buyer is Australian LNG and energy company Woodside Energy Group Ltd. Woodside will pay 80% of the purchase price to OCI at closing of the transaction, with the balance payable at project completion, according to agreed terms and conditions. OCI will continue to manage the construction, commissioning and startup of the facility and will continue to direct the contractors until the project is fully staffed and operational, at which point it will hand it over to Woodside. The transaction is expected to close in H2 2024, subject to shareholder approval.

Stefano Cicchinelli and Carmen Perez of Stamicarbon (MAIRE) explore the latest advancements in tertiary abatement technologies, their implementation in nitric acid plants, and the implications for the fertilizer industry.

As the industry pushes towards more sustainable practices, ammonia is emerging as a promising alternative fuel for ships. Effective management of by-product NOx, NH3 and N2 O emissions from the combustion of ammonia is crucial to the success of ammonia as an alternative fuel. A new catalyst has been developed by Enercat to treat these three molecules in one bed. Jean-Rémi Stephany and Emmanuel Rohart of Enercat – Alsys Group report on this new technology which has been developed in marine ammonia combustion engine conditions.

Casale’s fluid bed granulation tail gas treatment for nitrogen-based fertilizer employs double temperature scrubbing technology, which handles the granulator exhaust air separately from the cooler exhaust air. The technology can combine dust removal with ammonia abatement in the same installation to meet strict tail gas limitations such as 10 mg/Nm3 for dust and 10 mg/Nm3 for ammonia. Ken Monstrey of Casale explains the key features of the Casale scrubbing technology.

Ammonia benchmarks west of Suez remain supported by limited availability at key regional export hubs amid increased potential for cargoes to arrive from the East, where availability is far healthier, and prices appear under pressure. The disparity in prices was illustrated towards the end of August, when Nutrien sold 25,000 tonnes to multiple buyers in NW Europe for 1H September delivery at $550-555/t c.fr. When netted back to Trinidad, the price marks a sizeable premium on the $375/t f.o.b. last achieved by Nutrien back in late June, although given that last business in Algeria was fixed at $520/t f.o.b., it appears there is room for delivered sales into Europe to move up further. Regional availability is still limited, with extreme weather conditions in the US Gulf and North Africa potentially impacting supply further over the coming weeks.

Green ammonia production facilities can be situated in remote areas with access to often fully off-grid renewable power supply. This article examines plant concepts and discusses the challenges and solutions for these plant architectures. Through a case study, an efficient and innovative methodology to compare options and optimise the sizing of the plant is presented. The methodology addresses the intermittency of the power production, the flexibility limits of the main process units, and the costs of investment and operation, using proprietary techno-economic dynamic simulation software, Odyssey.