Decarbonisation: ammonia

This growth is likely being at least partially driven by supportive decarbonisation policies such as the US "Inflation Reduction Act", Japan’s Green Growth Strategy, and the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), which is a tariff on carbon intensive products.

Figure 2 shows the top three filing jurisdictions are Europe, the US, and Japan. In 2023, new patent applications in South Korea surpassed those filed in all three geographies. In 2021, South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced 13.8-21.5 percent of the country’s electricity generation will be sourced from hydrogen and ammonia-fuelled turbines by 2050, replacing power generation from coal and liquid natural gas.

Notably, global trade of ammonia is expected to increase tenfold by 2050, with ammonia being traded increasingly as a carrier for hydrogen for use in power generation and as marine bunker fuel. In fact, in 2018, the International Maritime Organisation announced its intention to reduce the industry’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions by at least fifty percent by 2050.

One of their key strategies to achieve this is using low-carbon ammonia as a fuel technology. Additionally, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) considers it possible to almost completely decarbonise maritime shipping by 2035. While this is exciting, this anticipated significant increase in demand for low-carbon ammonia adds to the pressure to decarbonise ammonia production.

Judging by Figure 1, industry is responding to this challenge, but who are the top filers of these new innovations?

Over the ten years spanning 2013 to 2023, the top filers have been Thyssenkrupp, the Korea Institute of Energy, Casale SA, SK innovation Co Ltd, Toshiba and Topsoe (Figure 3). While many of these entities were active prior to 2013, across the board their filings have reached record highs post-2020, demonstrating industry’s growing response to delivery of improved sustainability in the diversifying ammonia production market.

The main technologies being developed in the sustainable ammonia space can broadly be summarised as:

• Electrolyser cells – this technology relies on the process of electrolysis, passing a direct electric current through an electrolyte to initiate chemical reactions at electrodes. Such chemical reactions include: water splitting and proton reduction to produce hydrogen; carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide reduction; and nitrogen reduction to ammonia.
• Incorporation of green/blue hydrogen - green hydrogen is made by using electricity from renewable energy sources, such as solar or wind power, to electrolyse water. Blue hydrogen is produced mainly from steam reforming of natural gas with the carbon dioxide by-product captured using carbon capture technology.
• Green ammonia - ammonia produced using renewable energy sources through processes that generates negligible carbon emissions. It derives its hydrogen from water electrolysis and its nitrogen from the air.
• Blue ammonia - a low-carbon method of producing ammonia that involves capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions generated during its production.

The first applications from SK Innovation, a South Korean energy company, appeared in 2023, when they filed seven new patent applications. Around this time, SK Innovation along with Mitsubishi contributed to a USD150 million funding round for Amogy, a US based start-up. Amogy was established in 2020 and has developed a fuel cell system which directly turns ammonia into hydrogen onboard a vehicle. The partnership demonstrates a desire to move toward utilising hydrogen in the transport industry in Japan and Korea, where both countries have set ambitious targets for use of ammonia to meet power demands in the coming decades. More information on the trajectory of hydrogen patent filings can be found in Inside Green Innovation: Progress Report (Fourth Edition).

Thyssenkrupp started building nitrogenous fertiliser plants ninety years ago and have been interested in sustainable ammonia for some time, with filings dating from at least 2014. Their new patent applications are generally directed toward using hydrogen from renewable sources for ammonia production and retrofitting of ammonia production plants to enable renewable ammonia production. Their strategy appears to be gaining traction - Thyssenkrupp have already won a contract to deliver an electrolyser to CF industries in the US, which will produce 20,000 tons of green ammonia per year. Moreover, in 2023, Thyssenkrupp signed an agreement with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) focussed on the development of large-scale ammonia cracking projects which may use blue ammonia.

The Korea Institute of Energy Research (KIER) is a research institution specialising in energy technology. KIER’s research interests in ammonia production likely stem from Korea’s goal to utilise hydrogen and ammonia to meet 7.1 percent of the country's power demand by 2036. KIER’s new patent applications relating to sustainable ammonia are varied. Examples of technologies include electrochemical production of ammonia, ammonia production from biomass, novel catalysts for ammonia production, and production of ammonia from water and nitrogen. While these innovations are likely at an early stage, such an array of technologies demonstrates promise of new emerging technologies that may come into the ammonia production market.

Toshiba Energy Systems, another prominent filer, announced their collaboration with NYK systems in 2020. The aim was to develop a 150 ton class high-power fuel cell vessel which will function as a medium-sized tourist ship. Toshiba’s new patent applications relating to sustainable ammonia production are generally directed toward electrochemical cell design for reduction of nitrogen to ammonia. In particular, they relate to improving the efficiency and life span of such cells, vital considerations in the commercialisation of any industrial process.

Topsoe’s new patent applications are directed toward both blue and green ammonia production, as well as recovery of heat produced during ammonia production (indeed Topsoe are the top filer in the specific areas of green ammonia and blue ammonia, as discussed further below).

Surprisingly, none of the top filers are US-based companies. This is likely because new patent applications from the US are shared among many different companies (Figure 4a), whereas the market in Europe may be led by a few larger companies, such as Thyssenkrupp (Germany), Casale SA (Switzerland) and Topsoe (Denmark) (Figure 4b). The same can be concluded for South Korea because KIER and SK innovations are both South Korean entities.

Unsurprisingly, new patent applications specifically directed toward green ammonia production follow largely the same trend as filings directed toward sustainable ammonia production overall, with a boom in filings since 2020 (Figure 5).

Similarly, the trend in new patent applications specifically directed toward blue ammonia production shows a low number of filings until 2021, when there was a sudden increase in filings (from a very low baseline). There was a slight dip in 2022, however filings in 2023 appear to show a general trend toward continued growth.

The UK’s Royal Society’s Ammonia Policy Briefing, published in 2019, highlights international policies thought to encourage sustainable ammonia production, including Japan’s strategic innovation promotion program for energy carriers, and the funding provided by Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to deliver two ammonia plants in Queensland.

Topsoe is one of the top filers in the area of green ammonia synthesis, and the top filer in the field of blue ammonia synthesis (Figure 6). With Topsoe specialising in technologies aimed at reducing carbon emissions, and supplying technology and services for the global energy transition, this comes as no surprise.

In 2022, Topsoe won a deal to provide five gigawatt (GW) of its solid-oxide electrolyser (SOEs) to First Ammonia, a US-based start-up. At the time, this was the world’s largest hydrogen electrolyser order. The electrolysers are to be powered by renewable energy to produce green hydrogen which will in turn be used to produce green ammonia. According to Topsoe, facilities which will utilise the SOEs will be the world’s first commercial-scale green-ammonia facilities. More recently, in 2024, Hygenco Green Energies, an Indian company, announced a partnership with Topsoe. Topsoe are licensing their green ammonia loop technology to Hygenco so that Hygenco can establish one of India’s first large-scale green ammonia plants by 2027.