3 ms·

By the way, ammonia is basically the easiest market for clean hydrogen (makes WAY more sense than hydrogen for transportation). Ammonia actually doesn’t use hyd

By the way, ammonia is basically the easiest market for clean hydrogen (makes WAY more sense than hydrogen for transportation). Ammonia actually doesn’t use hydrocarbons for feedstock at all; it uses nitrogen from the air and hydrogen (usually produced via steam reforming of natural gas, but can be made easily with electricity, as was common before the 1950s when steam reforming took off). It takes about 1kg of hydrogen per 5.7kg of anhydrous ammonia. So if you can make clean hydrogen for $2.5-3/kg, you can make clean ammonia for under $500/tonne in feedstock costs. The current price of anhydrous ammonia has reached above $1300/tonne in some areas of the US in the last few months. Companies looking into making synthetic natural gas or hydrogen for transport really ought to be focusing on this as near-term low-hanging fruit where you have the option of actually eliminating steam reforming needed for fossil fuels and use electrically synthesized hydrogen as a direct feedstock instead.

nradov 5y ago
Ammonia may be a good option for fueling merchant ships. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54511743 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54511743
philipkglass 5y ago
Electrolytic hydrogen projects for this purpose are popping up now. "Scatec partners with Fertiglobe and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to develop green hydrogen as feedstock for ammonia production in Egypt" https://scatec.com/2021/10/14/scatec-partners-with-fertiglobe-and-the-sovereign-fund-of-egypt-to-develop-green-hydrogen-as-feedstock-for-ammonia-production-in-egypt/ https://scatec.com/2021/10/14/scatec-partners-with-fertiglob... In 1960 Egypt built a large electrolytic hydrogen plant powered by hydroelectricity from the Aswan Dam, also for making fertilizer. Now renewable electricity from other sources is reviving electricity-to-ammonia systems. In energy terms, the [fertilizer] industry is dominated by the Kima plant at Aswan which at full production would use 7.6 x 10^15 joules of energy per annum to produce 112,000 tonnes of nitrogen as prilled calcium ammonium nitrate. The plant was built in 1960 to utilize the spare hydropower available from the Aswan Dam to produce hydrogen by electrolysis for ammonia manufacture. The plant has operated successfully since its inception and is currently one of the largest plants in the country. From U.S. Department of Energy report, "An Assessment of the Energy Requirements and Selected Options Facing Major Consumers Within the Eyptian Industrial and Agricultural Sectors", 1978 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5610349 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5610349 One interesting side effect of these electrolytic hydrogen projects may be cheaper heavy water (deuterated water) and deuterium. The Norwegian heavy water plant that was famously sabotaged during World War II [1] was primarily a fertilizer plant that made electrolytic hydrogen using hydroelectricity. Electrolysis concentrates deuterium in the water left behind in the production cells, due to ordinary light hydrogen being liberated from water faster (kinetic isotope effect). Electrolysis is a very expensive way to make heavy water alone, but if you need to electrolyze a lot of water for hydrogen anyway, heavy water can be a much lower cost co-product. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage

nradov 5y ago

Ammonia may be a good option for fueling merchant ships. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54511743 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54511743

philipkglass 5y ago

Electrolytic hydrogen projects for this purpose are popping up now. "Scatec partners with Fertiglobe and the Sovereign Fund of Egypt to develop green hydrogen as feedstock for ammonia production in Egypt" https://scatec.com/2021/10/14/scatec-partners-with-fertiglobe-and-the-sovereign-fund-of-egypt-to-develop-green-hydrogen-as-feedstock-for-ammonia-production-in-egypt/ https://scatec.com/2021/10/14/scatec-partners-with-fertiglob... In 1960 Egypt built a large electrolytic hydrogen plant powered by hydroelectricity from the Aswan Dam, also for making fertilizer. Now renewable electricity from other sources is reviving electricity-to-ammonia systems. In energy terms, the [fertilizer] industry is dominated by the Kima plant at Aswan which at full production would use 7.6 x 10^15 joules of energy per annum to produce 112,000 tonnes of nitrogen as prilled calcium ammonium nitrate. The plant was built in 1960 to utilize the spare hydropower available from the Aswan Dam to produce hydrogen by electrolysis for ammonia manufacture. The plant has operated successfully since its inception and is currently one of the largest plants in the country. From U.S. Department of Energy report, "An Assessment of the Energy Requirements and Selected Options Facing Major Consumers Within the Eyptian Industrial and Agricultural Sectors", 1978 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5610349 https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/5610349 One interesting side effect of these electrolytic hydrogen projects may be cheaper heavy water (deuterated water) and deuterium. The Norwegian heavy water plant that was famously sabotaged during World War II [1] was primarily a fertilizer plant that made electrolytic hydrogen using hydroelectricity. Electrolysis concentrates deuterium in the water left behind in the production cells, due to ordinary light hydrogen being liberated from water faster (kinetic isotope effect). Electrolysis is a very expensive way to make heavy water alone, but if you need to electrolyze a lot of water for hydrogen anyway, heavy water can be a much lower cost co-product. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_heavy_water_sabotage