Significant developments in hydrogen could be found amid the many headlines of Glasgow’s Cop26 global summit, from Europe announcing its €1bn ($1.13bn) investment in clean technologies to Scotland showcasing its first-ever hydrogen-powered train.

Scotland also announced that hydrogen would be used to meet 15pc of Scottish energy needs by 2030, joining the plethora of government announcements signalling significant development for hydrogen in the coming years.

But infrastructure to support the growing hydrogen economy continues to play catch-up. Due to the fuel’s poor volumetric density, storing and transporting hydrogen remains a problem. Hydrogen can be moved in many ways—including as a pressurised gas, in tankers as a liquid or carried via pipelines. However, all these methods impact the overall efficiency of hydrogen as a low-carbon fuel, requiring either more energy to liquefy the gas, larger containment vessels or co-mixing with methane.

How, then, do we ensure that hydrogen technology can be applied broadly, and in a cost-efficient way, while maintaining pace with global energy targets? The answer could well be ammonia.

€1bn – EU investment in clean technologies

The implementation of hydrogen fuel cells enables the grid to be supplemented by an alternative, carbon-free fuel source, to support the decarbonisation of society’s most hard-to-abate sectors—including transport, maritime and heavy industry.

At AFC Energy, we utilise an alkaline fuel cell technology that uses the electrochemical combination of hydrogen and oxygen in a non-combustion process to essentially convert chemical energy into electrical energy.

A key and unique advantage of AFC Energy’s fuel cell technology is its ability to utilise low grade—and therefore, low-cost—hydrogen fuel, such as that derived from ammonia.

Ammonia, as a liquid inorganic carrier possessing no carbon-hydrogen bonds, can be ‘cracked’ upon end-point arrival to produce hydrogen and nitrogen, producing only heat and water as reactive byproducts.

Ammonia advantages

Ammonia is already the second most widely produced chemical in the world, being used in products such as fertiliser, cleaners, and industrial manufacturing. Moreover, it is relatively simple and safe to transport and store; for example, ammonia is up to three times more energy dense than compressed hydrogen, meaning significantly fewer deliveries and less storage space are required for the same energy content.

Ammonia is currently produced from natural gas with a commensurate carbon footprint. However, natural gas can be replaced with hydrogen sourced from electrolysis and renewables to derive a low-carbon form of the fuel. This alkaline fuel works well with alkaline fuel cell technology to generate zero-emission power. As such, ammonia is ideally placed to jump-start hydrogen use while infrastructure catches up with governments’ lofty hydrogen targets.

The ability of alkaline fuel cells to utilise ammonia as a vector for transporting hydrogen makes them an ideal technology for off-grid or remote power generation applications—enabling access to zero-emission power in isolated destinations without grid connections, where the grid is constrained, or where hydrogen infrastructure remains lacking.

Infrastructure to support the growing hydrogen economy continues to play catch-up

For example, the global construction sector accounts for 38pc of energy-related emissions, much of which comes from stationary diesel generators on construction sites. The challenges around storing hydrogen on construction sites remain a key impediment to the use of fuel cells. The pairing of ammonia and alkaline fuel cells offer an ideal replacement to support a transition from highly polluting diesel generators to zero-emission hydrogen generators on such sites.

Likewise, ammonia is seen as a vital component of the maritime industry’s decarbonisation strategy, where the International Maritime Organization has committed the shipping sector to a greenhouse gas emission reduction of 50pc by 2050. Given the amount of port-side storage available and the mature fuel distribution network in place, using low-cost, readily available and energy-dense ammonia as a base fuel remains a key opportunity for the decarbonisation of the shipping sector.

AFC Energy’s alkaline fuel cell, which will offer similar power density and performance to today’s proton exchange membrane fuel cells, offers a unique capability in utilising green ammonia, positioning it to effectively assist sectors such as maritime and off-grid power, mitigating their hard-to-abate emissions.

Ammonia can act as hydrogen’s silver bullet, capable of unlocking the fuel’s cost conundrum while helping meet the decarbonisation targets that nations committed to at Cop26.

Adam Bond is CEO of alkaline fuel cell developer AFC Energy.

---

Author: Adam Bond