Danish offshore wind company Ørsted and Japanese fertilizer Yara have joined forces to develop a project aiming at replacing fossil hydrogen with renewable hydrogen in the production of ammonia.
If the required public co-funding is secured and the right regulatory framework is in place, the project could be operational in 2024/2025, with the potential to abate more than 100,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to taking 50,000 conventional cars off the road.
More specifically, the project foresees a 100 MW wind powered electrolyser plant for renewable hydrogen production, aiming to replace fossil-based hydrogen with renewable hydrogen for ammonia production in Yara’s Sluiskil plant, in the Dutch province of Zeeland.
The renewable hydrogen would generate around 75,000 tons of green ammonia per year – approximately 10% of the capacity of one of the ammonia plants in Sluiskil – based on dedicated renewable energy supply from Ørsted’s offshore wind farms.
This comes as Ørsted is about to inaugurate its Borssele 1&2 offshore wind farm, the second biggest in the world, located off Zeeland close to the Sluiskil plant.
The green ammonia will be used in the production of carbon neutral fertilizer products, decarbonizing the food value chain, and also has potential as a future climate neutral shipping fuel.
Ørsted is committed to investing in renewable hydrogen production at scale, and with the right support in place this joint flagship project between Yara and Ørsted will not only lead to a significant reduction of CO2 emissions, but also help mature the technology for the wider decarbonisation of European industry,
…says Martin Neubert, Executive Vice President and CEO of Ørsted Offshore.
Green ammonia can be essential to enable sustainable food production, in addition it is emerging as the most promising carbon neutral energy carrier for several energy applications, such as decarbonized shipping fuel,
….says Terje Knutsen, Executive Vice President and head of Farming Solutions in Yara.
To close the cost gap of carbon-free hydrogen, the two companies will now seek public co-funding for the development and construction of the 100MW electrolyser facility to support the project.
Subject to sufficient co-funding and a confirmed business case, a final investment decision to build the new plant could come late 2021 or early 2022.
The project could act as a milestone on the hydrogen roadmap of the Smart Delta Resources cluster in Zeeland, and an important step in the scaling of renewable hydrogen in the Netherlands towards 3-4 GW by 2030.
Ammonia has been recently studied as a significant solution for carbon free shipping, despite being highly toxic and corrosive, thanks to its capability to be stored in higher temperatures in a liquid form under atmospheric pressure and its low flammability.
