A Newcastle technology company will use a $3 million funding round to take an unusual approach to ammonia production out of the laboratory and into its first pilot plant.
Facet Amtech has secured the investment from Main Sequence and Uniseed to expand its research, engineering and commercial team, build the pilot and undertake independent technical validation.
The company has developed a catalyst-based process designed to make ammonia using nitrogen from air and water as its starting materials, removing the need to produce hydrogen separately before it enters the ammonia-making process.
Ammonia is essential to the production of nitrogen fertilisers and is also being considered for applications including shipping fuel and renewable energy storage. But making it is energy intensive, while conventional production relies heavily on natural gas.
Facet’s technology emerged from research at the University of Newcastle. The company has since moved into its own facility in Warrabrook, where co-founder James Bradley said it now employs six people.
The funding means the question facing the Newcastle team is changing. Its catalyst has worked in laboratory testing. The next task is determining whether an engineering system built around that chemistry can operate reliably outside the lab and eventually at industrial scale.
Why removing hydrogen production matters
Understanding Facet’s potential requires looking at how ammonia is normally made.
Ammonia consists of nitrogen and hydrogen. Conventional production generally obtains the hydrogen from natural gas through steam methane reforming before combining it with nitrogen through the Haber-Bosch process.
Producing low-emissions ammonia can replace fossil-derived hydrogen with hydrogen made by splitting water through electrolysis using renewable electricity.
That removes one source of emissions, but the hydrogen still has to be produced as a separate input before ammonia can be made.
Facet is pursuing a different route.
Its catalyst is designed to allow water to provide the hydrogen required for ammonia production without first requiring a separate hydrogen production system. Nitrogen comes from the air.
Main Sequence says removing that stage could eliminate part of the equipment, energy requirements and expense associated with ammonia plants. The investor says natural gas alone can account for around 70 per cent of conventional ammonia production costs in Australia.
Facet says its technology is designed to reduce the energy required to produce ammonia and lower production costs. Main Sequence says early modelling also points to lower capital and operating costs if the technology can eliminate separate hydrogen production, but says those economics are yet to be demonstrated at commercial scale.
That is one reason the coming pilot matters.
Variables to be tested by the pilot include reactor design, catalyst manufacturing, repeatability, durability, scale-up and whether the projected economics can be maintained outside laboratory conditions.
An unexpected Newcastle discovery
The technology did not begin as an attempt to redesign ammonia production.
According to the CSIRO, Facet co-founder Peter Richardson and his research team had developed a catalyst for another application when testing produced an unexpected result: ammonia was detected after the material came into contact with water.
Further work investigated whether water itself could provide the hydrogen needed to make ammonia.
Richardson later joined forces with Bradley, who had previously co-founded small wind turbine company Diffuse Energy, to develop an engineering process around the discovery.
The work progressed through the University of Newcastle’s Integrated Innovation Network, while Facet also participated in CSIRO’s ON Accelerate program and received access to research facilities through CSIRO Kick-Start.
CSIRO reported in January that Facet had built what it described as the world’s first air-feeding ammonia reactor and was working towards demonstrating the technology at pilot scale.
Main Sequence says the team has since demonstrated repeatable catalyst performance and scaled production of the catalyst at high purity.
Facet became the first company to progress through the University of Newcastle’s formal Spinout Framework in 2025.
Why ammonia matters beyond fertiliser
The size of the existing ammonia market gives the technology relevance before potential clean-energy applications are considered.
Ammonia is predominantly used to produce fertilisers. Main Sequence says around half of world food production depends on synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
Australia also has considerable exposure to overseas fertiliser supply. According to figures cited by Main Sequence, the country consumes around 8.7 million tonnes of fertiliser annually, valued at $5.5 billion, with 91 per cent imported.
That leaves Australian agriculture exposed to movements in international fertiliser prices, gas markets, shipping and other supply disruptions.
Ammonia is also attracting attention as an energy carrier because hydrogen can be incorporated into ammonia for transport and storage. Potential applications include shipping fuel, power generation and energy storage.
However, producing clean ammonia economically remains a challenge. Making renewable hydrogen through electrolysis requires equipment and electricity before the hydrogen reaches the ammonia production stage.
If Facet can demonstrate that its process removes the need for that separate hydrogen-production system at industrial scale, it could alter both the physical footprint and economics of producing low-emissions ammonia.
Funding puts the focus on the pilot
Main Sequence first invested in Facet through its Atmosphere pre-seed fund in September 2024, with Uniseed also backing the company during its early development.
The latest $3 million round is led by Main Sequence with further investment from Uniseed.
The money will allow Facet to grow its team across research and development, engineering and commercial roles while building its first dedicated pilot plant.
For a technology that began with an unexpected laboratory result at the University of Newcastle, the pilot represents a different test from demonstrating that the underlying chemistry works.
It now has to establish whether that chemistry can be turned into equipment that operates consistently, can be manufactured and scaled, and ultimately produces ammonia at a cost that can compete with established industrial processes.
