Tag: Carbon Capture

Gidara Energy has agreed with the Port of Rotterdam to develop a new waste to methanol facility in the Netherlands: Advanced Methanol Rotterdam (AMR). Gidara will duplicate its Advanced Methanol Amsterdam project as a template for AMR, using Gidara’s patented high temperature Winkler (HTW® ) technology, which converts nonrecyclable waste to renewable fuels. This technology has been used commercially in four other waste to syngas production facilities. AMR will convert around 180,000 t/a of non-recyclable waste into 90,000 t/a of methanol, while capturing all waste streams for use; CO2 will be captured and led to local greenhouses; bottom product residue will be used for cement production; and other streams like ammonia and salts will be sold and put to use as feed stock for other industries and road salt respectively, creating a fully circular concept. The facility is scheduled to start detail engineering and construction in the first half of 2023, when a permit is received, and start production of renewable methanol in 2025.

Erika Niino-Esser of thyssenkrupp Industrial Solutions explains the importance of thyssenkrupp’s technologies for sustainable hydrogen and ammonia value chains in the global energy transition, and how they are contributing to a climate-neutral world. Several novel green hydrogen projects are also highlighted.

Florian Gruschwitz of MAN Energy Solutions takes a look at the current investment decisions influencing green hydrogen projects on the path to decarbonisation, reviews technologies that are available today, and discusses what it will take to ramp up a global green hydrogen economy.

CRU’s Nitrogen + Syngas conference returned to a face to face meeting for the first time in two years at the end of March this year.

Ammonia synthesis catalysts have seen major improvements over the last 100 years, and they are highly optimised with respect to activity, thermal stability, and poisoning resistance. Improving such catalysts even further requires a deep understanding of their structure and the impact of different parameters on performance. Clariant, Johnson Matthey and Topsoe report on their studies and developments in ammonia synthesis catalysts.

INEOS says that it is aiming to forward its plans for a ‘net zero’ future for its Grangemouth site in Scotland by inviting major engineering design contractors to tender for the next stage of the design of a world scale carbon capture enabled hydrogen plant and associated infrastructure.

High feedstock prices and regulatory burdens continue to put pressure on European nitrogen producers to innovate.

The COP-26 summit in Glasgow last year signed into force new rules on carbon emissions trading which may gradually start to see carbon pricing spread worldwide, with knock-on effects on emissions intensive industries like ammonia and methanol.

As a quick glance through the Index of last year’s articles and news items in this issue of the magazine will amply demonstrate, 2021 was a year full of project announcements for low carbon ammonia and methanol projects of all hues; blue, green, turquoise and many other shades besides. Market analysts CRU said in December that they calculated that there have been a total of 124 million t/a of low carbon ammonia projects announced, 80 million t/a of which came in 2021 alone, equivalent to 55% of current ammonia capacity. These range from tentative pilot plants that are fully costed and often with government grants already secured to blue sky visions of vast electrolysis hubs in the deserts of Arabia with timescales towards the end of the decade – it’s often the case that the longer the proposed timescale, the less likely a project is to happen.

The International Fertilizer Association (IFA) has signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) over collaboration to support the FAO’s vision of transformative change and innovation in agriculture. Svein Tore Holsether, IFA Chair, signed the agreement at a live virtual signing in December together with FAO deputy director general Beth Bechdol. The agreement outlines collaboration to further shared goals and objectives with regard to the promotion of sustainable food and agriculture. Both parties will work together to raise awareness about the International Code of Conduct for the Sustainable Use and Management of Fertilizers (Fertilizer Code), promote education and knowledge transfer and continue their successful collaboration on fertilizer statistics.