Ammonia - The Hydrogen Carrier!

1. Basics!

Ammonia is a colourless gas (at room temperature) with an extremely pungent odour. It is made by combining Nitrogen and Hydrogen (NH₃). Its the most widely produced inorganic compound in the world. Its also one of the most traded inorganic compounds in the world. In FY20, the world produced ~180 MT of Ammonia, of which ~18 MT was traded and shipped across the world. Present Ammonia production process is extremely carbon intensive. Every ton of Ammonia produced using the current process, produces 1.6 ton of CO₂.

2. Uses of Ammonia

Present Uses

Presently, Ammonia is the basic building block of the Nitrogen industry with Nitrogen Fertilizers (Urea, DAP) accounting for 80% of Ammonia demand. The balance is split between various uses like explosive (Ammonium Nitrate), Refrigerants, Plastics etc. 

Potential Uses

As the world strives to move away from Carbon, there are increasing uses cases for Ammonia like

• Ammonia as a marine fuel 
• Combining Ammonia with Coal as fuel in coal fired power plants
• Using Ammonia as a carrier for fuel

3. How is Ammonia produced?

Ammonia is produced using the the Haber Bosch process which combines Nitrogen (from air) with Hydrogen (usually from Coal or Natural Gas) to produce Ammonia. The process, using Green Hydrogen is shown below:

Geographically, Ammonia is produced all over the world. China leads the production with ~30% followed by US, EU, Russia, ME and India each contributing 8-10%

4. The Good, Bad and Ugly of Ammonia

Good

• Easy to store and transport. Ammonia liquifies at -33^o C (as against lower than -250^o C for Hydrogen & LNG).
• Storage and transportation infrastructure exists
• Meaningful uses exist as of today
• Safety standards well established 

Bad

• Presently, no commercial & efficient technology for using Ammonia as fuel.
• Splitting Ammonia to get back Hydrogen is expensive 

Ugly

• Green Ammonia is presently estimated to be 2.5-3x the price of Grey Ammonia

5. India perspective

India is already a key player in the Ammonia market. In FY21, the demand for Ammonia in India was ~21 MTPA, predominantly in the fertilizer sector. This is expected to increase to 45 MTPA by 2050. Further, India presently imports both Ammonia and Ammonia based fertilizers. Domestic fertilizer production and imports is as below:

India has been trying to reduce dependence on imported fertilizer. As can be seen, 15 MTPA of imported Urea and DAP can easily be offset by utilising domestic green Ammonia (demand ~5.5 MTPA Ammonia). 

India also has, in its favour, the huge renewable energy resources (especially solar) and also the well established solar energy sector to enable it to be a key player in the Green Ammonia space. Many players have projects in pipeline to tap this market.