Amogy and Trafigura are to research ammonia cracking technology to facilitate global clean hydrogen supply chains.
Sustainable energy start-up Amogy and trading giant Trafigura have teamed up to identify scenarios in which ammonia cracking technology can be deployed to support the evolving hydrogen market. The findings of this research will help support industry-wide efforts to decarbonise transport and subsequently reduce carbon emissions to meet the goals of the clean energy transition. Initially, European hydrogen markets will be the focus of this research, with the region targeting 20 million tonnes of hydrogen consumption by 2030.
Ammonia’s potential as a hydrogen carrier
Ammonia is an energy-dense compound and is currently traded on a global scale due to its use in agriculture. The ability to trade ammonia is therefore supported by existing transportation and storage infrastructure.
The compound has the potential to be a successful hydrogen carrier due to its high volumetric hydrogen density. This will enable hydrogen the economic, long-distance transportation of hydrogen. Scalable ammonia cracking technologies, the focus of this joint research, therefore, have the potential to assist Europe in its aim to lower emissions carbon emissions from industry and the transport sector.
Potential for the future
Amogy and Trafigura will use economic models and energy forecasts to determine the viability and cost-effectiveness of industrial-scale ammonia crackers.
Exploring the potential of the joint research venture, Seonghoon Woo, Chief Executive and Co-Founder at Amogy, stated: “Our partnership with Trafigura opens up tremendous opportunities for the Amogy team to better understand and explore our platform’s potential benefits at scale.
“We look forward to collaborating with Trafigura to identify opportunities for large-scale ammonia cracking to enable global transportation of hydrogen.”
Margaux Moore, Head of Energy Transition Research at Trafigura, added: “At Trafigura, we recognise that hydrogen will need to be transported over long distances, from regions rich in renewable power to demand hubs. Ammonia is a cost-competitive carrier of hydrogen which will require cracking at destination to cater to different end uses.
“We believe ammonia cracking will be a key enabling technology for the large scale uptake of clean hydrogen. Our work with Amogy will help us understand the economics of this supply chain, to deliver the most competitive low carbon hydrogen to our customers.”
The research will take advantage of Amogy’s ammonia-to-power platform, which features the company’s proprietary cracking technology that converts ammonia back into hydrogen. Following successful demonstrations, Amogy is now scaling up its technology for use in larger applications and pursuing strategic partnerships to support global decarbonisation efforts.
