Why green ammonia will be the workhorse of EU’s future hydrogen economy – EURACTIV

Green ammonia plays a prominent role in the 20 million tonne renewable hydrogen target of the European Commissions REPowerEU plan. Now its time for the EU to put its money where its mouth is, writes Joel Moser.

Joel Moser is the CEO of First Ammonia, a leader in the production of green ammonia. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at Columbia Universitys School of International and Public Affairs.

When Russia first invaded parts of Ukraine in 2014, it should have been a turning point in the way the EU viewed its significant dependency on Russian fossil fuels. Unfortunately, since then the EU has only increased its relative share of Russian natural gas.

Russian gas made up more than 40% of all of Europes gas consumption in 2021 providing Vladimir Putins huge leverage over the EU.

Fortunately, there is now finally a clear sense of urgency that, with Russias second invasion, the EU must do something. And if it is done well, it can deliver a huge win-win: Lessening its dependence upon fossil fuels, generally, and accelerating its green transition.

The ammonia sector can play a central role in this transition: The EUs ammonia sector uses about 10 billion cubic meters (BCM) of natural gas annually, mostly as a feedstock to make fertilizers. And of course, Europe cant just stop using fertilizers because they are essential to help guarantee food security for the EU and the world.

But what if instead of continuing ammonias reliance of natural gas, we could substitute that Russian fossil fuel with homemade renewable energy? And what if that same renewable energy-based resource, specifically green ammonia made from water and renewable power, can also serve as a fuel for transportation and power generation?

That is the power of green ammonia.

Green Ammonia could help Europe directly meet almost 30% of the 35 BCM savings the EU hopes to achieve in industry by 2030 in its newly presented REPowerEU plan.

Thats why it was great to see that during the REPowerEU presentation, Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans praised the benefits that ammonia can bring as a renewable hydrogen carrier.

For example, ammonia has the highest volumetric energy density out of all the hydrogen-based technologies much more than hydrogen gas, liquified hydrogen or methanol which makes it relatively cheap and easy to transport renewables over large distances.

Green ammonia is also relatively easy and cheap to deploy, because Europe can make use of existing infrastructure. There are around 270 ammonia sea terminals in place worldwide, of which about 30 in the EU.

These terminals can be directly used for green ammonia in the fertilizers sector without technical limitations, and with some extensions also to the other use cases of green ammonia, such as long-term energy storage and fuels in the maritime sector and power generation.

Therefore, the REPowerEU plan aims to domestically produce several million tonnes of renewable hydrogen based on ammonia. It also wants to import from outside the EU no less than 4 million tonnes of renewable hydrogen-based ammonia in the coming years.

But of course, this high import target would mean Europe risks jumping from one dependency into another. And that might not chime with its broader agenda of strategic autonomy, where the EU wants to become more self-sufficient when it comes to critical raw materials and other means.

While the EU should certainly look for secure ways to source green ammonia from foreign sources, it should also look deeper within. And it has a big capacity to do so.

For example, First Ammonia applied for funding under the Innovation Fund of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). We did so for our plan to build a 300-megawatt plant in Brunsbttel, Germany, that will produce green ammonia with a first-of-a-kind, industrial-scale solid oxide electrolyser (SOEC).

This innovative system, which produces green ammonia in-line with the production of grren hydrogen, is significantly more efficient than current production technology and is designed as a modular unit that can easily scale.

Efficient use of renewable power is significant as Europe only has a limited capacity to generate renewables and a big number of end uses. Our technology would also allow us to stop our ammonia production for about 10 hours per day, during the peak demand hours so we do not put pressure on the grid.

Indeed, our off-peak use of renewable power actually promotes the development of additional renewable power by adding net revenue to the market for green power, reducing demand curtailments and stabilizing the renewable grid.

Europe is at a crossroads now. It has a dual objective of reaching its ambitious 2030 climate targets, while quickly reducing its dependency on Russias fossil fuels.

These seemingly competing objectives can be achieved by prioritising the financial support to green ammonia projects, allowing Europe to shift its ammonia sector away from natural gas and making green ammonia the workhorse of the EUs future hydrogen economy.

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Why green ammonia will be the workhorse of EU's future hydrogen economy - EURACTIV