French Air Liquide announces it will construct an industrial-scale pilot cracker in the Port of Antwerp to convert ammonia (NH3) into hydrogen (H2). The new plant, scheduled to be operational by 2024, will be a crucial stepstone transporting green energy from sunny regions worldwide over the oceans to Europe, a key enabler of the energy transition.

That’s one of the reasons the Flemish Government, through the VLAIO (Flemish Agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship), has confirmed financial support for the project. Ammonia, which can be transported easily in liquified form, is considered a suitable hydrogen carrier but can also be used as a fuel.

Ammonia terminal in Antwerp-Bruges

Earlier, Belgian gas network operator Fluxys, already preparing a future on hydrogen as an alternative ‘clean’ energy source, announced it is studying the feasibility of creating a gas terminal in the Port of Antwerp-Bruges to import green ammonia massively by 2027. The Air Liquide cracker that would become a reality sooner could neatly fit in.

Ammonia (NH3) molecules contain one part of nitrogen and three parts of hydrogen. Today it is mostly made from natural gas, a non-sustainable process, mainly used for fertilizers. But it has applications in far more domains like wastewater treatment, cold storage, refrigeration systems, printing and cosmetics industries, and in the production of pharmaceuticals.

But there is a more sustainable way. The general idea is that ‘green’ hydrogen can be made in regions like the Middle East or Chile with a lot of solar and wind power, converted to ammonia by adding nitrogen and transported in ships to Europe.

By ship or retrofitted gas pipelines

By 2050, about one-quarter or about 150 megatons (Mt) of hydrogen per year of the total global hydrogen demand could be traded worldwide by converting to ammonia for shipping or through retrofitted gas pipelines. This would drastically reduce the transport costs and the bulk; 75% would be produced and consumed locally.

The latter is projected by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) in the 2022 study, and it is a radical change from today, where 74% of the oil demand is traded internationally and transported by pipelines or tankers. It could make Europe far less independent than it is on natural gas and oil today.

Liquified at -33°C

Ammonia has the advantage that it can be liquified and transported at -33°C and transported in colossal ammonia tankers, similar to today’s fleet of liquified natural gas tankers. While for hydrogen to become liquid, it has to be cooled in cryogenic conditions to minus 253°C, making it more difficult and expensive to handle and distribute.

Ammonia is a colorless, toxic, flammable gas, but the fire risk is low compared to other fuels due to its lower flammability. It could be used in combustion engines with minor modifications, but although it emits no CO2, it’s not ‘zero emission’ as nitrogen oxides (NOx) remain a problem. A problem that doesn’t exist with pure hydrogen.

Fuel cells

Hydrogen can be used as a fuel, like in rocket engines today or in future airplane engines, as Airbus aims to do from 2035 on, or to generate electricity through fuel cells, powering FCEVs, for instance. Today’s standard fuel cells can’t run on ammonia, though a special kind of fuel cell can be used in reverse form to extract the hydrogen from the ammonia.

According to hydrogen specialist Air Liquide, a global supply chain infrastructure is already in place for its production, transportation, and utilization at a large scale to serve various industries.

“More than ever, the Group is committed to making hydrogen a key element of the fight against climate change, in particular for the decarbonization of heavy industry and mobility,” says Michael J. Graff, Executive Vice President of Air Liquide Group.