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Heraeus Precious Metals, in collaboration with the research service provider hte, has developed a ruthenium-based catalyst for the decomposition of ammonia to produce hydrogen.
To facilitate and accelerate the recovery of hydrogen from ammonia, researchers from the institute for inorganic chemistry of the university Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) have developed, in its project AmmoRef (duration 04/2021-03/2025), a more active and cost-effective catalyst together with its cooperation partners. The results of this work are retained in the hydrogen lead project (Wasserstoff-Leitprojekt) TransHyDE of the Germany ministry for education and research (BMBF). AmmoRef is one of ten TransHyDE projects that are funded by the BMBF. In it, existing technologies for hydrogen transport are to be improved.
A completely different league to Hannover Messe or Hy-Fcell in Stuttgart: The World Hydrogen Summit & Exhibition in Rotterdam showed from May 13 to 15, 2024 where the H2 event sector can go. Similarly to the Hydrogen Technology Conference & Expo in Bremen, the organizers staged a large, professional industry gathering, which most participants were impressed by, if not enthusiastic about, which makes you wonder why the fair only lasted two days.
Ammonia produced from electrolysis-generated hydrogen is to become the green energy carrier and sustainable basic chemical of the future. The infrastructure for the import is being created at lightning speed. In Hamburg and Brunsbüttel, new terminals are to start operation in 2026.
The Green Hydrogen in India congress took place in New Delhi on April 18 and 19, 2023. The occasion prompted an invitation for me to travel from Mumbai via Surat to New Delhi and then through Ahmedabad back to Mumbai. Scheduled along the way was a host of individual meetings with key representatives from major Indian corporations, often at their headquarters. These companies have all identified hydrogen as a new field of high growth and already have large amounts of renewable energy available – primarily solar energy – for hydrogen production. Their aim is to export hydrogen by ship in the form of green ammonia.
Green hydrogen is to help many sectors achieve climate neutrality in the future. Yet there are still gaps for the implementation of it in transport as well as storage. The H2 lead project TransHyDE, funded by the German ministry for education and research (BMBF), is looking at various chemical transport options for green hydrogen: gaseous hydrogen (GH2), liquid hydrogen (LH2), ammonia (NH3) and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs).
The production of ammonia for the fertilizer industry is, according to the IEA (International Energy Agency), the second most important area of hydrogen utilization. We therefore presented some concrete projects for the production of green ammonia in the July 2021 issue of H2-international. But what about the user side? Up to now, ammonia has hardly played any role as an energy carrier, although it could become an important source of energy, especially in transport by ship. The compound has numerous advantages over other energy mediums. At the same time, however, there are still many technical and logistical challenges to be solved, which are being addressed by, among others, the research projects ShipFC and Campfire.
