113. How Ammonia Could Help the World Transition to Clean Energy

Hydrogen is widely seen as a vital component in efforts to decarbonize the world’s power supply. One example of this is a strategy being piloted by at least a couple of major gas turbine manufacturers, which involves storing “green hydrogen” produced through electrolysis using excess wind or solar power when renewable energy supplies exceed grid demand. Then, when the tables turn and demand exceeds renewable energy supplies, the carbon-free green hydrogen is burned in combustion turbines to provide sustainable clean energy to the grid. It’s not a perfectly efficient energy conversion, but it is a method that can be used essentially as a renewable energy storage mechanism, reducing demand for fossil fuels. The movement of hydrogen is not so simple though. Today, hydrogen is transported from the point of production to the point of use via pipeline and over the road in cryogenic liquid tanker trucks or gaseous tube trailers. Because hydrogen has a relatively low volumetric energy density, its transportation, storage, and final delivery to the point of use comprise a significant cost and result in some of the energy inefficiencies associated with using it as an energy carrier. However, ammonia offers one possible solution for the hydrogen transport problem. The chemical formula for ammonia is NH3. Like hydrogen, ammonia can be combusted in gas turbines and reciprocating engines. Unlike hydrogen, however, ammonia can be more easily transported and stored in liquid form, something fertilizer companies have been doing for decades. “Hydrogen is really being looked at as a key means of transporting energy around the world and fueling the world in an environment where carbon emissions aren’t acceptable,” Erik Mayer, vice president of Clean Energy Solutions with CF Industries, said as a guest on The POWER Podcast. “We convert large quantities of hydrogen into ammonia, currently for the fertilizer market but ultimately that same ammonia molecule is being looked at as an efficient way of being able to move hydrogen molecules