All posts by mickeybarb@charter.net

Alltech Crop Science Acquires Ideagro

News, News Briefs, South Central, Spain

Alltech Crop Science, Lexington, Ky., on Jan. 17 announced that it has acquired Ideagro, Murica, Spain. Alltech said the deal joins two platforms to accelerate soil and crop research, and to enhance biological and other microorganism-based offerings to Alltech customers. Alltech said it has worked closely with the Ideagro team since that company’s founding 11 years ago.

“The combination of the Ideagro expertise with the reach and scale of Alltech will allow us to extend world-leading understanding of the interface between soil, crop, animal, and human health to the global market,” said Andy Thomas, CEO of Alltech Crop Science. “The potential implications of these insights cannot be understated as we endeavor to improve the vitality of our global food system, from the ground up.”

“We are facing a great growth opportunity for Ideagro because we are going to have better means and more technological capacity to develop our research, which will now have a global projection,” said Pedro Palazón, CEO of Ideagro. “We will no longer only study the soils of the Iberian Peninsula, but we will work with soils from all over the world to achieve more sustainable and environmentally friendly agriculture.”

Ideagro has three laboratories and more than 20 scientists, with experimental research stations and fields for carrying out trials in Spain. To date, the company has researched more than 90 different crops and performed more than 10,000 physicochemical and biological analyses. This has led to the development of new agricultural strategies based on microorganisms.

Alltech Crop Science, a division of privately-held, family-owned Alltech, has been involved in the application of microbial fermentation and nutrigenomic research to optimize yields, enhance crop health, and maximize crop productivity for over 25 years.

H2Carrier, L&T Partner on P2XFloater™

Green Ammonia, India, News, News Briefs, Norway

H2Carrier AS, Oslo, and Larsen &Toubro (L&T), the Mumbai-based multinational engaged in EPC projects, hi-tech manufacturing, and services, on Jan. 13 announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to cooperate toward developing floating green ammonia projects, the P2XFloater™, for industrial-scale applications.

H2C plans to build the P2XFloater™ hull at yards in Asia, while L&T will design & fabricate the topside process & utility modules for the production of green hydrogen and green ammonia, including the electrolysers, the nitrogen generation plant, and ammonia synthesis.

Installation and integration of the topsides modules into the hull can be customized as per location preferences, i.e., can be carried out in India or in other geographies. Under the MOU, L&T will become a partner for the engineering, contract, procurement, installation, and commissioning (EPCIC) of the topsides processing plant.

H2C is the designer and owner of the proprietary floating energy production and storage system P2XFloater™, an industrial-scale floating green hydrogen and green ammonia facility. As far as H2Carrier is aware, the P2XFloater™is the first of its kind to be launched on a global basis capable of producing hydrogen and ammonia on an industrial scale.

H2Carrier said its concept is based on proven floating production, storage, and offtake technologies from the oil and gas industry in combination with an e-control system capable of balancing renewable electricity feedstock through a fully integrated electrolyser and Haber-Bosch system. H2C will build, own/lease, and operate a fleet of P2XFloaters™.

L&T said it has over four decades of experience in building large-scale hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, and derivative plants, and also has an expertise in delivering comprehensive modular business solutions for various applications for onshore and offshore projects, as well as power and offshore wind farms.

H2Carrier Inks LOI with Greenland’s Anori

Green Ammonia, News, News Briefs, Norway

H2Carrier AS, Oslo, and the Greenland-based company Anori A/S have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with the purpose of developing the first commercial wind farm in Greenland with subsequent production and export of green ammonia.

The wind farm is projected to comprise 1.5GW renewable energy which will supply power to H2Carrier’s floating production vessel for hydrogen and green ammonia, the P2XFloater™ (see related story). Green ammonia will be stored in tanks onboard the vessel, then exported to smaller shipping vessels and carried to the international market for ammonia.

Indorama Acquires JSC Rustavi Azot, Plans Plant Modernization, Capacity Increase

News, News Briefs, Southeast Asia

Indorama Corp. announced that effective Jan. 10, 2023, Excelus Holdings LLC, Georgia, a subsidiary of Indorama Corp. Pte Ltd., Singapore, has acquired 100% shares in JSC Rustavi Azot (RA) Georgia, from JSC EUI Investments.

Indorama said RA is one of the largest producers of fertilizers and industrial chemical products in the Caucasus region. It has a capacity of 200,000 mt/y of ammonia and 450,000 mt/y of ammonium nitrate, according to the Green Markets database.

Indorama said the acquisition marks another important step toward the company’s long-term commitment to the fertilizer sector. It said it has plans to inject further capital in coming years to ensure the modernization of RA’s plant and expand its production capacity.

thyssenkrupp, ADNOC Sign MOU on Clean Ammonia

ADNOC - Abu Dhabi, Ammonia, Germany, News, News Briefs

thyssenkrupp Uhde and ADNOC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Jan. 16 to explore a long-term partnership to create new markets for hydrogen and promote global clean-energy value chains. The MOU will focus on a joint project development of large-scale ammonia cracking, which is used to extract hydrogen from ammonia after transportation.

The ammonia cracking process is based on uhde® reformer technology, which thyssenkrupp said is applied in over 130 large-scale chemical plants across the world. The parties said the agreement will also lead to the exploration of opportunities in the clean energy value chain for the supply and shipment of clean ammonia from the UAE to large-scale ammonia cracking facilities.

Amogy Reports Success with NH3-Powered Truck

Ammonia, News, News Briefs, Northeast

Ammonia power technology provider Amogy Inc. on Jan. 17 announced the successful testing of the first-ever ammonia-powered, zero-emission semi-truck. After integrating its technology into a 5 kW drone in July 2021 and 100kW John Deere tractor in May 2022 (GM June 3, 2022), Amogy said it has quickly scaled its ammonia-to-power technology to 300 kW.

Amogy said after following an eight-minute-long fueling, the semi-truck, having 900 kWh of total stored net electric energy, was tested for several hours on the campus of Stony Brook University. Later this month, the Amogy team will pursue a full-scale testing on a test track to showcase the truck’s performance under various real-world operating conditions.

Following this successful freight truck testing, Amogy said it will continue to pursue strategic partnerships across the global shipping and transportation industries. This includes the company’s 1 MW-scale ammonia-powered tugboat to be presented later in 2023, and other commercial deployments with partners including a recently-announced inland barge retrofit project with Southern Devall (GM Nov. 4, 2022).

In November, Amogy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA), a decarbonization-focused subsidiary of Yara International ASA (GM Nov. 11, 2022). Under the MOU, YCA will consider Amogy’s ammonia-to-power system as a zero-emissions solution for use within future shipping projects. The companies will also pursue opportunities with external partners, including shipowners, for Amogy to deliver its proprietary technology and YCA to deliver clean ammonia.

ACWA Plans Green Plants in Uzbekistan

Asia, Green Ammonia, Green Hydrogen, News, News Briefs, Saudi Arabia

ACWA Power, Riyadh, a Saudi Arabian developer, investor, and operator of power generation, water desalination, and green hydrogen plants, said on Jan. 19 that it has signed extensive Heads of Terms agreements to develop a green hydrogen facility and a green ammonia pilot project in the Republic of Uzbekistan with the country’s Ministry of Energy and Uzkimyosanoat, a state-owned chemical company. It said these projects will be the first of their kind in the Central Asian country.

The first green hydrogen project will be an integrated facility and is set to be connected to an existing ammonia plant in Chirchiq, 45 kilometers from Tashkent, the country’s capital. The project is expected to generate 3,000 mt/y of green hydrogen.

ACWA Power will oversee the full value chain of integration to this existing infrastructure project to green hydrogen, which is expected to improve the service factor of the facility and reduce its dependence on natural gas. The company has plans for an accelerated development timeline for this facility and is targeting a commissioning date of December 2024.

The second project involves the development of a 500,000 mt/y green ammonia feasibility study. Since this project will reduce Uzbekistan’s dependence on natural gas by 600 million cubic meters per year, it is expected to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 1.5 million mt/y. The study will conclude by the end of next year.

Aside from these green hydrogen and green ammonia projects, ACWA Power also has five existing projects in Uzbekistan, including four wind projects and a combined gas cycle turbine facility. The country is the second largest in terms of value for the company after its home market of Saudi Arabia.

Topsoe Forms Alliance with Fidelis

Denmark, Houston, TX, Hydrogen, News, News Briefs

Denmark-based Topsoe and Fidelis New Energy LLC, Houston, on Jan. 10 announced that they have entered into a global alliance for technology used for producing carbon neutral hydrogen. The alliance pairs Topsoe’s hydrogen process portfolio with FidelisH2™ technology for reduction of lifecycle carbon emissions in hydrogen production.

Combined, the alliance solution enables the production of hydrogen from natural gas with a lifecycle carbon intensity of 0 kgCO2e / kgH2.

Indorama Deal for Rest of IEFCL Reported

News, News Briefs, Southeast Asia

The Singapore-based Indorama Group has reportedly purchased the 15% of Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Ltd. (IEFCL) that it did not already own, according to a Jan. 19 report by African Business, which valued IEFCL at US$3.3 billion.

The seller was reported to be UK-based Actis Capital. IEFCL’s 1.4 million mt/y urea plant is in Port Harcourt, Nigeria (GM March 25, 2016). Indorama and Actis had not responded to inquiries by press time.

Yara Clean Ammonia, JERA Eye Collaboration on US Gulf Blue NH3 Project, Sale & Purchase of Clean NH3

Blue Ammonia, Featured, Japan, News, Norway

Yara Clean Ammonia (YCA) and Japan’s largest power generator, JERA Co. Inc., have inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to study the viability to collaborate on the joint development of a 1 million plus mt/y blue ammonia project that YCA is considering developing in the US Gulf Coast, Yara International ASA announced on Jan. 17.

In the MOU, the two companies have also agreed to jointly study the viability for the sale and purchase of clean ammonia for the 20% co-firing operations at the Hekinan Thermal Power Plant Unit 4, which is targeted to start in 2027.

YCA has been nominated as a potential supplier in JERA’s tender to supply up to 500,000 mt/y of clean ammonia to the Hekinan plant, said Yara. The plant is JERA’s first commercial scale co-firing project.

YCA and JERA inked a MOU in May 2021 to collaborate on the production, delivery, and supply chain development for blue and green ammonia to enable zero-emission thermal power generation in Japan (GM May 14, 2021).