French industrial gases company Air Liquide has announced it will construct a large-scale ammonia cracker at the port of Antwerp in Belgium by 2024 in an effort to unlock ammonia as a hydrogen carrier in a globally traded market. The pilot cracker will receive financial support from the Flemish government.

While ammonia has a number of advantages as a potential hydrogen carrier—such as existing infrastructure to ship the chemical between markets—conversion and cracking present high cost and efficiency losses.

$8bn – Air Liquide spend on low-carbon hydrogen by 2035

“Ammonia cracking complements Air Liquide’s already thorough portfolio of hydrogen technologies and adds yet another technological solution to enable the development of a global hydrogen market. More than ever, the group is committed to making hydrogen a key element of the fight against climate change, in particular for the decarbonisation of heavy industry and mobility,” says Michael Graff, executive vice-president at the company.

Air Liquide has pledged to invest $8bn in the low-carbon hydrogen value chain by 2035. The firm joins a growing list of companies investigating ammonia cracking at scale.

State-owned oil giant Saudi Aramco recently partnered with Germany’s Linde Engineering to develop new ammonia cracking technology. The company is also one of 18 firms—including majors ExxonMobil, Shell and BP—to commission a feasibility study on a central ammonia cracker capable of producing 1mn t/yr of hydrogen at the port of Rotterdam. The UAE’s Adnoc has also recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Germany’s Thyssenkrupp to investigate the development of large-scale cracking facilities using the latter’s technology.

Ammonia-to-power

Ammonia technology startup Amogy has announced it has secured $139mn in series B funding. The round was led by South Korea’s SK Innovation, with other investors including Aramco’s venture capital arm, UK-based AP Ventures, Singapore’s Temasek, metals firm Korea Zinc, US-based DCVC and Japan’s Mol Plus, Yanmar Ventures and Zeon Ventures.

Amogy has developed ammonia-to-power technology that feeds liquid ammonia through cracking modules integrated into a hybrid fuel-cell system for zero-carbon transportation, with a particular focus on shipping. The startup has field-tested an ammonia-fuelled semi-truck earlier this year and plans to demonstrate an ammonia-powered tugboat in late 2023, with commercialisation planned from 2024.

“Amogy’s technology represents a key breakthrough in the usage of ammonia as a fuel, and we believe it will revolutionise not only the maritime industry, but the entire transportation industry, says Jun Kim, CEO of SK Innovation. “We want to make sure Amogy has the resources it needs to make zero-emission shipping a reality.”

“For a long time, we have been a believer in the midstream,” Michelle Robson, senior investment manager at AP Ventures said in a recent podcast with Hydrogen Economist describing the company’s strategy for deploying venture capital in the hydrogen value chain.

“What we have seen is that there is this gap between being able to move the quantities of renewable hydrogen… from where it is produced in areas with abundant sunshine and wind, across to the demand centres where it is going to be consumed, be that in Asia or in northern Europe,” she continues.

AP Ventures has invested a large amount of capital into “various forms of hydrogen carriers which provide low-cost, efficient and safe means of transporting large volumes of hydrogen to really enable the economy to develop and provide hydrogen as a commodity”, such as German technology firm Hydrogenious and its liquid organic hydrogen carrier technology, she says. The firm focuses on technologies such as ammonia cracking “which also require a lot of development and improvement to get them going at scale”.

When it comes to innovation, Robson notes that startups have some advantages over large corporates in terms of ability to focus attention and funds toward a specific pain point, as well as greater capacity to pivot to market requirements. “The best outcomes are where we see startups and strategics working together as partners, where the strategics can share their know-how on manufacturing and markets, and where the startups bring the agility, the ownership and the motivation for change,” she adds.

Amogy is working with commodities trader Trafigura to jointly research the feasibility of large-scale ammonia cracking.

Separately, London-listed AFC Energy has launched new modular ammonia cracking technology, and is in discussions with companies and industries ranging from shipowners, utilities, OEMs and industrial-scale hydrogen users to assess emerging opportunities.

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Author: Polly Martin