Carbon-free Ammonia Production Set to Soar by 2030
Key Ideas
  • BloombergNEF predicts a 30-fold increase in carbon-free ammonia production by 2030, reaching 32.4 million tonnes annually, accounting for 13% of global supply.
  • North America, China, and the Middle East are expected to lead in ammonia production, with potential uses as a fuel for shipping and hydrogen transportation.
  • Traditional ammonia production involves extracting hydrogen from natural gas, generating CO2 emissions. Solutions include blue ammonia with CCS and green ammonia with renewable energy.
  • BNEF foresees blue ammonia dominating production in the coming decade, but green ammonia gaining traction post-2030 due to stronger global policy support.
According to BloombergNEF, the production of carbon-free ammonia is projected to experience a substantial surge by 2030, possibly growing by 30 times its current levels to make up 13% of the global supply. Presently, only 1.1 million tonnes of clean ammonia are manufactured annually, a figure set to escalate to 32.4 million tonnes by the close of the decade. Key regions for ammonia production are anticipated to be North America, China, and the Middle East, with the gas potentially serving as a fuel for shipping and a carrier for hydrogen across the globe. Despite these promising applications, ammonia continues to be mainly utilized in fertilizer and explosive industries. The conventional method of producing ammonia involves obtaining hydrogen from natural gas, a process that results in CO2 emissions. To address this, BloombergNEF suggests two solutions: 'blue ammonia' generated by capturing and storing the CO2 emissions, and 'green ammonia' produced by manufacturing hydrogen from water using renewable energy sources. While the report forecasts the dominance of blue ammonia in the upcoming years, it anticipates that green ammonia could surpass it post-2030 due to the more robust support from global policies.
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