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Projects to run the Haber-Bosch process with clean hydrogen are already underway: https://www.bicmagazine.com/projects-expansions/renewable-sustainability-h2-e
by philipkglass 4y ago
Projects to run the Haber-Bosch process with clean hydrogen are already underway:
https://www.bicmagazine.com/projects-expansions/renewable-sustainability-h2-esg/avina-clean-hydrogen-signs-agreements-for-largest-green-ammonia-palnt/ https://www.bicmagazine.com/projects-expansions/renewable-su...
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/08/26/avaada-to-invest-5-billion-in-green-hydrogen-ammonia-plant-in-india/ https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/08/26/avaada-to-invest-5-bi...
https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/egypt-approves-55-bln-green-hydrogen-project-ain-sokhna-2022-12-14/ https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/egypt-...
They use electricity from wind and/or solar power to electrolyze hydrogen from water. Then the hydrogen gets combined with nitrogen in the Haber-Bosch process like usual. This is not a good bet for VCs because the capital commitments are large (billions of dollars' worth of physical chemical plant) and there's no prospect of winning the market by being early. Big industrial players are already earlier than VCs could hope to be at this stage.
In some ways this is a trip back in time. In the 20th century, many renewable ammonia plants were constructed and operated using hydroelectric power:
https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4079/3/2/11/htm https://www.mdpi.com/2673-4079/3/2/11/htm
It peaked in the 1960s (figure 6). A combination of rising demand for electricity at home and industry, plus optimization of hydrogen production from fossil feedstocks, made electricity-to-hydrogen (and from there to ammonia) less popular. But now rising natural gas prices and climate concerns, plus falling costs for renewable electricity from wind and solar, make it attractive again.
- RugnirViking 4y agoworked on control & modelling software for some of these PtX plants. Pretty neat stuff, although I got the impression there are quite a few already running