Air Products, ACWA Power and NEOM sign agreement for $5B production facility for production and export of green ammonia to global markets for H2 delivery
10 July 2020
Air Products, ACWA Power and NEOM signed an agreement for a $5-billion world-scale green-hydrogen-based ammonia production facility powered by renewable energy.
The project, which will be equally owned by the three partners, will be sited in NEOM, a new model for sustainable living located in the north west corner of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and will produce green ammonia for export to global markets.
The joint venture project is the first partnership for NEOM with leading international and national partners in the renewable energy field and it will be a cornerstone for its strategy to become a major player in the global hydrogen market.
It is based on proven, world-class technology and will include the innovative integration of over four gigawatts of renewable power from solar, wind and storage; production of 650 tons per day of hydrogen by electrolysis using thyssenkrupp technology; production of nitrogen by air separation using Air Products technology; and production of 1.2 million tons per year of green ammonia using Haldor Topsoe technology. The project is scheduled to be onstream in 2025.
Air Products will be the exclusive off-taker of the green ammonia and intends to transport it around the world to be dissociated to produce green hydrogen for the transportation market.
We are honored and proud to partner with ACWA Power and NEOM and use proven technologies to make the world’s dream of 100 percent green energy a reality. Harnessing the unique profile of NEOM’s sun and wind to convert water to hydrogen, this project will yield a totally clean source of energy on a massive scale and will save the world over three million tons of CO2 emissions annually and eliminate smog-forming emissions and other pollutants from the equivalent of over 700,000 cars.
—Seifi Ghasemi, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer for Air Products
This is proper industrial scale.
Notions that hydrogen will not be rolled out for transport need to be binned.
The initial roll out will be focussed on heavy duty vehicles, but cars can piggy back on that.
Posted by: Davemart | 10 July 2020 at 02:15 AM
I'd also point out that this blows a $5 billion hole in the meme which has been about for years that hydrogen is fossil fuel use by another name, which persisted despite the substantial amounts of hydrogen for transport from renewables.
It is easier to decarbonise hydrogen supply than the electricity grid, as it operates in discrete modules, whereas you pretty much have to do the entire electricity supply to make a BEV use renewables when you plug it in.
Posted by: Davemart | 10 July 2020 at 03:07 AM
Another lame greenwashing PR stunt
Posted by: dursun | 10 July 2020 at 08:56 AM
@dursan:
You imagine that directors invest $5 billions as a PR stunt?
Posted by: Davemart | 10 July 2020 at 09:13 AM
Producing H2 from solar and wind at large scale is no brainer for Saoudia, that’s the only way for them to transition from oil that for once won’t last for ever and might have to stay in the ground for limiting global warming.
Posted by: Treehugger | 10 July 2020 at 05:56 PM
Ammonia is toxic and can kill.
People complain about methanol...geez!
Posted by: SJC_1 | 10 July 2020 at 06:42 PM
Meanwhile Saudi Arabia is still flaring natural gas but claims that they will end that practice by 2030.
I will be surprised if this so called "green ammonia" actually happens.
Posted by: sd | 10 July 2020 at 07:29 PM
Lots of industrial products are toxic. No one is going to be pumping ammonia into cars, it is operating as a carrier for hydrogen, and will be dealt with in an industrial setting.
I would be surprised if no due diligence has been done on their plans for green production.
That is not how $5 billion projects are done, and undertakings will have been given.
Posted by: Davemart | 11 July 2020 at 01:56 AM
” The project is scheduled to be onstream in 2025.”
Does anyone remember in 2016 when NKLA announced their nation wide H2 fueling network would be on-stream by 2019? 4 years later they announced it would be operational by 2023. How about in 2016 when Hyundai announced they would be producing 15,000 FCEVs by 2018? it didn't happen. Or South Korea announcing that they would add over 100 H2 stations in 2019? They added 20 and lost one that detonated and others that simply weren't profitable. Anyone recall in 2006 before Navigant was Called Navigant and they issued a paper that projected by 2020 there would be 10 million FCEVs and 1 million EVs. ? It is 2020 now and we’ll finish the year with 9 to 10 million EVs and South of 20k FCEVs.
I think you have to be pretty naive to actually believe this is going to happen as spelled out.
Posted by: Gasbag | 11 July 2020 at 06:13 AM
Hypedrogen and fool cells are a futile attempt of the oil-mafia to stay in business and avoid the trip to death-row.
Posted by: yoatmon | 11 July 2020 at 06:48 AM
@Gasbag:
You seem to imagine that if any organisation whatsoever at any time makes an overenthusiastic projection on a technology that means that it can forever more be dismissed.
Perhaps you would take us through the logical process you use to arrive at that conclusion.
Posted by: Davemart | 11 July 2020 at 06:56 AM
If they really succeed to produce 1.5 million tons/year of green ammonia, that would be remarkable, but the world production of all (=fossil) ammonia in 2019 was only 171 million tons.
It would make the most sense to first replace the fossil NH3 with green NH3 before, which would already be great.
It would make much more economic and ecologic sense to first replace all fossil NH3 by green NH3, and only then start "burning" it. Building an industrial-scale production and transportation infrastructure for green NH3 is very sound, but it seems to be way to early to consider 'burning' it as fuel, as when (most optimistically) they will -by 2025- hardly replace 1% of world fossil NH3 production.
electricity --> H2 --> NH3 --> H2 --> electricity (FCEV) is much less efficient than electricity --> battery --> electricity (BEV), so as long as we don't have dirt-cheap excess electricity, it would be more sound to use electricity as efficiently as possible.
Posted by: Alain | 12 July 2020 at 01:52 AM
Alain:
Replacing the ammonia used as a commodity would make sense as you say.
This initiative has to be put in the context of what Saudi are trying to achieve and the longer term though.
The drive is to have a zero carbon alternative to offer as oil and gas run down so as to secure the long term future for the Saudi economy.
Ammonia on its own as currently used would not do that, but replacing their oil for transport with renewable transport fuel would.
They can both test their own systems and prime the market for far larger production in the future.
Posted by: Davemart | 12 July 2020 at 09:25 AM
” You seem to imagine that if any organisation whatsoever at any time makes an overenthusiastic projection on a technology that means that it can forever more be dismissed.”
That misconception is your creation. If you want an explanation or defense you’ll need to provide it. Hyundai (FCEV production), South Korea Gov (subsidies), and NKLA (mindshare/market cap) aren’t exactly just any organization. Each is in the top three of their respective area hence they are the vanguard of The FC realm.
That being said I will confess that I dismissed this as soon as I read their target date of 2025. Typically when an endeavor is dependent on an emerging technology and they are planning a go-live five years out that the project is b likely to never come to fruition. This project is just the opposite. They aren’t waiting on a technology to be developed. They are waiting for a market to develop.
Five years is a long time. Long enough for a competing technology to be refined and optimized.
Posted by: Gasbag | 12 July 2020 at 09:11 PM