CHE.13 – Green Ammonia

Ammonia is directly linked to food production across the world as it is a critical component in most nitrogen-based fertilizers. Due to recent events in Europe there has been a large-scale disruption in ammonia production from one of the world’s largest ammonia suppliers. This lack of ammonia contributed to food scarcity in many places that already struggle feeding their populations. These events were our motivation to design a Green Ammonia process that would help supplement the world’s ammonia production while also falling in line with the desire to limit carbon emissions. Green ammonia is an alternative ammonia synthesis process that is much more environmentally friendly compared to the common processes used today. Rather than obtaining hydrogen gas from the most used steam-methane reforming process that contributes to significant CO2 emissions, our Green Ammonia process simulates ammonia production using hydrogen produced from a electrolysis unit running solely on electricity certified as produced by renewable energy sources. Our plant will be located in the Texas Gulf Coast to take advantage of VPPA’s in the area with electricity produced from wind and solar sources, as well as take advantage of the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act that provides companies with tax breaks related to green hydrogen production. Our plant will be producing roughly 3000 tons/day of ammonia equating to 1.1 MT/year. It is our hope that the projected profitability of our process design could help demonstrate to large-scale chemical producers that green ammonia production could be a viable method to supplement the worlds ammonia production while helping to limit carbon emissions.