United States/Germany – JERA of Japan and Uniper of Germany are funding an ammonia project on the US Gulf Coast with an eye toward exports to Germany.
To begin, JERA and Uniper will work to establish a production facility capable of producing 2 MTPA of clean ammonia, with the capacity to increase to 8 MTPA if demand rises.
JERA Americas and ConocoPhillips are developing a facility on the US Gulf Coast with the intention of producing hydrogen and converting it into clean ammonia for distribution to JERA and Uniper. By the end of the decade, Uniper hopes to have exported around 1 MTPA of green ammonia to Europe.
By the end of this year, an engineering study will have been completed to lay the groundwork for the first stage of the project, which will evaluate potential uses of green and blue hydrogen. Commercial operation, with a fully certified CCS program, is projected for the late 2020s.
New LNG supplies should be assured in the near future as well, thanks to the arrangement. In turn, Uniper will be able to increase its LNG exports to Germany, while JERA will be able to expand its global reach.
Ammonia in US
The EIA reports that between 2015 and 2020, annual ammonia output in the United States will increase by 46%, from 11.6 million metric tons per year (mt/y) to 17.0 million mt/y. The percentage of imported ammonia in the United States is expected to drop from 40% in 2010 to 13% in 2020 as domestic production increases faster than demand.
