Ammonia is a key ingredient in fertilisers, and demand is expected to grow by 40% by 2050. However, traditional production methods consume around 2% of the world’s annual energy supply and release over 450 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. To address these challenges, Element One, an Australian company focused on emerging hydrogen technologies, partnered with Laureate Professor Behdad Moghtaderi and his team at the Centre for Innovative Energy Technologies (CINET) and embarked on a Trailblazer for Recycling and Clean Energy (TRaCE) Major Project in 2023.
The project, titled: AMMONIAC: A Chemical Looping-Based Process for Production of Green Ammonia, has created a new ammonia production process that is simpler, more cost effective and environmentally friendly than conventional methods. The system cycles between different reaction environments, ‘breathing in’ nitrogen and hydrogen and ‘breathing out’ ammonia.
Phil Matthews, AMMONIAC’s Founder and Managing Director, believes this process could transform ammonia production. “To my knowledge, this process has never been done before. The ammonia can be used for fertiliser, fuel and electrons or heat for industrial applications, which may cut emissions in multiple sectors,” he said.
The project has now completed proof-of-concept testing with a 100 g/day prototype. According to Laureate Professor Moghtaderi, the prototype has performed beyond expectations. “These results are extremely promising and in terms of performance characteristics the unit meets all our design specifications. If these results are translated into large-scale production, we would be able to produce green ammonia at a levelized cost of about US$200 per tonne of ammonia,” he said.
This cost is about a quarter of other green ammonia technologies and is competitive with fossil-fuel-based ammonia currently on the market.
With the prototype phase completed, the next steps involve scaling up to a 100 kg/day pilot plant, followed by a 10 tonne/day reference plant. Matthews sees broad applications for the technology. “The potential of this technology is huge. I could give the AMMONIAC unit to a farmer and with air and water from the ground, they could produce ammonia. They can then use that ammonia for fertilisers or crack it down into green hydrogen for clean energy, and the best part is that the by-product is pure water,” he said.
As the team moves towards the next scale-up phase, the current prototype will continue to be used for further refinements and testing, but the results so far suggest that AMMONIAC could provide a viable alternative to conventional ammonia production, reducing emissions while keeping costs competitive.
