(436a) Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Ammonia As Green Energy Carrier

Well-known
environmental concerns, new directives and tighter regulations drive the
development of new industrial processes with lower carbon emissions and reduced
fossil fuel consumptions. Among those processes, ammonia production accounts
for a significant share of about 1% of global CO₂ emissions (Brown,
2016). Ammonia seems to be a promising carbon free energy carrier with high
energy density and already available infrastructure distribution with respect
to other carbon free solutions (e.g. hydrogen).

Within this
framework, Casale developed a new patented process, A6000CC (WO2018/149641), to
convert natural gas to ammonia with reduced CO₂ emissions to
atmosphere, as low as less than 0.2 MT_CO2/MT_NH3 to stack,
which is about 80% lower with respect to Best Available Technologies (IFA,
2009). The new process has been optimized to reach high single train capacity,
7000MTPD NH3, along with low specific fuel consumptions.

This new process
reaches a carbon capture even higher than 90%, considering both ammonia process
and utilities, without the inclusion of a dedicated CDR unit for
post-combustion carbon capture of flue gases. Decarbonization targets are
reached basing on a pre-combustion strategy, where syngas is partially used as
(syn)fuel.

High production
capacity allows the use of low-carbon ammonia as multipurpose energy carrier
produced at large scale in locations where high availability and low cost of
natural gas occur, and where captured CO₂ can be stored (CCS) or has
a market value for utilization (e.g. EOR).

References

T. Brown, 2016. Ammonia
production causes 1% of total global GHG emissions, Ammonia Industry.

F. Baratto, R.
Ostuni, 2018. Process for the synthesis of ammonia with low emissions of CO2 in
atmosphere. WO2018/149641.

International
Fertilizers Association (IFA), 2009. Energy Efficiency and CO2 Emissions in
Ammonia Production, 2008-2009 Summary Report.