Air Liquide and AFC Energy today announced plans to expand ammonia cracking capacity amid an expected increase of ammonia imports into Europe, paving the way for greater use of hydrogen on the continent.
Paris-based Air Liquide said it will build an industrial scale ammonia cracking pilot plant in the port of Antwerp, Belgium.
The pilot plant, which combines a novel, efficient process with Air Liquide’s proprietary technologies, is planned to be operational in 2024. The Flemish Government, through the VLAIO (Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship), has confirmed financial support to the project.
When transformed into ammonia, hydrogen can be easily transported over long distances. And the market for ammonia cracker technology is expected to grow: the International Renewable Energy Agency notes that demand for ammonia is forecast to reach 223 million tonnes by 2030 in a 1.5°C scenario, an increase of 22% over 2020 levels.
AFC Energy, a UK-based fuel cell maker, also today launched a new ammonia cracker technology platform – a new hydrogen generation solution that aims to unlock the value of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier fuel across European and Asian energy markets, according to a news release.
The company’s cracker technology has been accelerated in response to material growth in ammonia imports recently contracted into Europe to support the EU’s sustainable energy policies and address energy independence challenges arising out of the Ukraine conflict.
AFC noted that the region is ill-prepared to exploit the increase in ammonia imports due to a lack of cracker capacity, a technology that has faced limited demand and negligible investment in recent decades.
The company is in discussions with potential partners in industries ranging from ship owners, utilities, OEMs, and industrial scale hydrogen users, to validate industry opportunities. The ammonia cracker’s modular design and low-cost system architecture makes the cracker readily scalable from small-scale hydrogen production to multi-million tonnes per annum, according to the company.
Large-scale ammonia crackers have been proposed elsewhere in Europe to meet national hydrogen import demand, including at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands (Transhydrogen Alliance) and at Wilhelmshaven in Germany (Uniper), with capacities of up to 0.5 Mt per year of hydrogen (3.7 Mt per year of ammonia), according to IRENA.
The Port of Rotterdam has announced that it will import up to 18 Mt of hydrogen by 2050, equivalent to 135 Mt of ammonia.
