Infrastructure Challenges Caused by Industrial Transformation to Achieve Greenhouse Gas Neutrality. Ammonia Production in the Antwerp‐Rotterdam‐Rhine‐Ruhr Area

Abstract

Several pathways for potentially greenhouse gas neutral production of ammonia have been investigated compared to today's conventional ammonia production at chemical sites in Antwerp, Dormagen, and Geleen. These pathways include on‐site water electrolysis using grid electricity, off‐site production via water electrolysis using renewable electricity and supply of green hydrogen to the site, pyrolysis of natural gas and conventional ammonia production coupled with CO2‐capture on‐site and transport to a storage site. All pathways effectively eliminate scope 1 emissions present in conventional production but continue to emit scope 2 emissions from grid electricity consumption. Eventually, a coordinated industry‐wide and cross‐industry effort is needed to address the transformational changes and develop the common cross‐border infrastructures.

Industrial decarbonization via hydrogen: A critical and systematic review of developments, socio-technical systems and policy options

“…Other industrial uses include as a refrigerant gas and as a feedstock for other chemicals production [276]. Due to its chemical and physical properties, ammonia, which is 17-18% hydrogen by weight, is increasingly explored as an energy vector (in direct combustion power systems or fuel cell applications) [218,222,277,278] and as a hydrogen carrier (for long distance transmission and distribution as an intermediate) [262,[279][280][281][282][283][284][285][286][287]. The decarbonization of maritime transport (further discussed below) is suggested to benefit from renewable hydrogen-derived ammonia as its primary decarbonizing fuel option in the medium-term [223], as falling electricity prices from renewable and nuclear energy will lower production costs of green ammonia, bringing it in line with current fossilderived hydrocarbon fuels [4].…”

Design and Analysis of an Offshore Wind Power to Ammonia Production System in Nova Scotia

“…While P2A using a solid oxide electrolyser is currently not economically feasible, it can be competitive with a payback time of less than 5 years with drops in cost in electrolyser stacks [25]. In addition, although it is feasible to eliminate carbon emissions within a P2A plant in a certain region (e.g., the Antwerp-Rotterdam-Rhine-Ruhr Area [26]), it may still be difficult to eliminate total life-cycle emissions from the grid if the grid electricity is used to power the P2A process. Khademi et al [27] modelled an ammonia production process derived from steam reforming of biomass-derived glycerol in a thermal-integrated intensified process.…”