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Green ammoniaPotential for the energy transition
Ammonia is one of the world’s most important basic chemicals. When produced using renewable energy, green ammonia can also play an important role as an energy carrier and in transporting green hydrogen.
Ammonia from renewable energy
In everyday life, we may encounter ammonia when baking gingerbread, for example, as baker’s ammonia, a leavening agent, has a slight ammonia smell. Pure ammonia in larger quantities, however, is intended only for industrial use under strict safety standards. In industry, it serves many purposes, particularly in fertilizers that help maintain fertile soils, and is also used as a refrigerant, for example in ice rinks.
Like hydrogen, ammonia is colorless, but it has a pungent odor and can be “green” depending on how it is produced. Today, it is still predominantly produced using fossil feedstocks, explains Thore Lohmann, Head of Transformation Management from thyssenkrupp Uhde. Green ammonia, by contrast, does not require fossil feedstocks for hydrogen production: electricity from renewable sources is used to produce hydrogen (H2) through electrolysis, nitrogen (N2) is extracted from the air, and the two are then combined to form ammonia (NH3).
A look into the future: green ammonia is full of potential
In the future, ammonia will take on another important function - as a means of transport for green hydrogen. In order to meet the growing demand for green hydrogen in Europe, and especially in Germany, to transform high-emission industries into more sustainable processes, it will have to be imported from other countries. There is just one problem: transporting hydrogen over long distances is extremely costly, explains Lohmann: "To transport large quantities, the gas has to be liquefied at -253 °C." This cooling requires an extremely high amount of energy. In addition, some of it constantly evaporates, resulting in losses. "With ammonia, much larger amounts of energy can be transported in less space, because the energy density of ammonia is much greater than that of liquid hydrogen in terms of volume," explains Lohmann. Ammonia liquefies at -33°C and can be easily stored and transported. Liquid hydrogen, on the other hand, consumes up to an additional 40% of the energy content due to the extreme cooling required for transportation.
Many millions of tons of ammonia are already transported by ship every year. The necessary infrastructure is already in place and safe handling has been established and practiced worldwide for decades.
The ammonia needed for fertilizers can also be produced in an environmentally friendly way in the future.
Energy in chemical form: This is power-to-ammonia
Transporting green ammonia is simpler, safer and cheaper than green hydrogen. In the power-to-ammonia process, hydrogen is produced from renewable energies by electrolysis and nitrogen is extracted from the ambient air using an air separator. This produces green ammonia - a climate-neutral energy carrier in which renewable energy is chemically stored. After transportation, it can be converted back into green hydrogen or used directly, for example in the steel, cement and chemical industries, as a marine fuel or in gas-fired power plants. Proper combustion produces only water and nitrogen. Steel production with green hydrogen is already being tested at thyssenkrupp Steel.
thyssenkrupp Steel is already testing steel production using hydrogen.
Prerequisites for a successful energy transition
thyssenkrupp Uhde supplies the technology to build plants for the production of green ammonia. "We can currently produce up to 5000 tons of green ammonia per day in a single plant," says Lohmann. Looking to the future and the new role of the chemical, however, these capacities are not yet sufficient to cover the rapidly increasing demand for ammonia in the future. In addition to hydrogen transport, ammonia will continue to be important for fertilizer production.
thyssenkrupp is therefore constantly working on expanding its production capacities. In addition to the construction of new plants and the conversion of existing ones, a great deal of renewable energy, more ships and terminals must be available in the future so that green ammonia can develop its full potential for the energy transition, according to Lohmann.