banner
News center
Our products are effortless, handy, and safe to use.

Offshore green ammonia synthesis

Aug 26, 2023

Nature Synthesis (2023)Cite this article

12 Accesses

3 Altmetric

Metrics details

The global potential for renewable energy production far exceeds global energy demand. However, the accessibility of renewable energy is constrained by existing land use, the need to preserve protected areas and the costs associated with transporting energy over large distances. As a consequence, finite renewable energy capacity must be carefully matched to appropriate end uses. In this Perspective, we advocate the production of green ammonia on the ocean to address this policy challenge: local renewables should be used to generate electricity with high efficiency, whereas comparatively low-efficiency chemical energy storage in the form of ammonia should occur further away from energy consumers and be transported at relatively low costs. We describe the synthesis processes to be adopted, the techno-economic basis for this resource allocation, and the technical developments required that can enable this energy system to be established.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 digital issues and online access to articles

$119.00 per year

only $9.92 per issue

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Oil and Petroleum Products Explained (US Energy Information Administration, 2022); https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php

Carter, L., Quicke, A. & Armistead, A. Over a Barrel: Addressing Australia's Liquid Fuel Security (The Australia Institute, 2022); https://australiainstitute.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/P1036-Over-a-barrel_liquid-fuel-security-WEB.pdf

Devlin, A. & Yang, A. Regional supply chains for decarbonising steel: energy efficiency and green premium mitigation. Energy Convers. Manage. 254, 115268 (2022).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Hydrogen: A Renewable Energy Perspective (International Renewable Energy Agency, 2019); https://www.irena.org/publications/2019/Sep/Hydrogen-A-renewable-energy-perspective

Cesaro, Z. The Role of Green Ammonia in Sector Coupling and Seasonal Electricity Storage (Univ. Oxford, 2021); https://www.ammoniaenergy.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/20211105_ZCesaro_AEAConference_noappendix.pdf

Innovation Outlook: Renewable Ammonia (International Renewable Energy Agency & Ammonia Energy Association, 2022).

Navigating the Way to a Renewable Future: Solutions to Decarbonise Shipping. Preliminary Findings (International Renewable Energy Agency, 2019); https://www.irena.org/publications/2019/Sep/Navigating-the-way-to-a-renewable-future

Valera-Medina, A., Xiao, H., Owen-Jones, M., David, W. I. F. & Bowen, P. J. Ammonia for power. Prog. Energy Combust. Sci. 69, 63–102 (2018).

Article Google Scholar

Renewable Energy Hub in Australia (British Petroleum, 2023); https://www.bp.com/en_au/australia/home/who-we-are/reimagining-energy/decarbonizing-australias-energy-system/renewable-energy-hub-in-australia.html

Moriarty, P. & Honnery, D. What is the global potential for renewable energy. Renew. Sustain. Energy Rev. 16, 244–252 (2012).

Article Google Scholar

Deng, Y. Y. et al. Quantifying a realistic, worldwide wind and solar electricity supply. Glob. Environ. Change 31, 239–252 (2015).

Article Google Scholar

Windemer, R. Considering time in land use planning: an assessment of end-of-life decision making for commercially managed onshore wind schemes. Land Use Policy 87, 104024 (2019).

Article Google Scholar

Katsouris, G. & Marina, A. Cost Modelling of Floating Wind Farms (ECN, 2016); https://questfwe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Cost-Modeling-of-Floating-Wind-Farms-ECN-2016.pdf

Feldman, D. et al. U.S. Solar Photovoltaic System and Energy Storage Cost Benchmark: Q1 2020 (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2021); https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy21osti/77324.pdf

Dugger, G. L. & Francis, E. J. Design of an ocean thermal energy plant ship to produce ammonia via hydrogen. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 2, 231–249 (1977).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Wang, H., Daoutidis, P. & Zhang, Q. Harnessing the wind power of the ocean with green offshore ammonia. ACS Sustain. Chem. Eng. 9, 14605–14617 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Salmon, N. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. Impact of grid connectivity on cost and location of green ammonia production: Australia as a case study. Energy Environ. Sci. 14, 6655–6671 (2021).

Article Google Scholar

Beerbühl, S. S., Fröhling, M. & Schultmann, F. Combined scheduling and capacity planning of electricity-based ammonia production to integrate renewable energies. Eur. J. Oper. Res. 241, 851–862 (2015).

Article Google Scholar

Nayak-Luke, R. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. Techno-economic viability of islanded green ammonia as a carbon-free energy vector and as a substitute for conventional production. Energy Environ. Sci. 13, 2957–2966 (2020).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Cheema, I. I. & Krewer, U. Operating envelope of Haber–Bosch process design for power-to-ammonia. RSC Adv. 8, 34926–34936 (2018).

Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Smith, C., Hill, A. K. & Torrente-Murciano, L. Current and future role of Haber–Bosch ammonia in a carbon-free energy landscape. Energy Environ. Sci. 13, 331–344 (2020).

Article Google Scholar

Humphreys, J., Lan, R. & Tao, S. Development and recent progress on ammonia synthesis catalysts for Haber–Bosch process. Adv. Energy Sustain. Res. 2, 2000043 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Smith, C. & Torrente-Murciano, L. Exceeding single-pass equilibrium with integrated absorption separation for ammonia synthesis using renewable energy—redefining the Haber–Bosch loop. Adv. Energy Mater. 11, 2003845 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

MacFarlane, D. R. et al. A roadmap to the ammonia economy. Joule 4, 1186–1205 (2020).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Ahluwalia, R. K., Papadias, D. D., Peng, J.-K. & Roh, H. S. System Level Analysis of Hydrogen Storage Options (Argonne National Laboratory, 2019); https://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/pdfs/review19/st001_ahluwalia_2019_o.pdf

Salmon, N. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. in Computer Aided Chemical Engineering Vol. 49 (eds Yamashita, Y. & Kano, M.) 1903–1908 (Elsevier, 2022).

Fasihi, M., Weiss, R., Savolainen, J. & Breyer, C. Global potential of green ammonia based on hybrid PV-wind power plants. Appl. Energy 294, 116170 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

James, B., Houchins, C., Huya-Kouadio, J. M. & DeSantis, D. A. Final report: hydrogen storage system cost analysis. OSTI.GOV https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1343975 (2016).

Bellosta Von Colbe, J. et al. Application of hydrides in hydrogen storage and compression: achievements, outlook and perspectives. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 44, 7780–7808 (2019).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Salmon, N., Bañares-Alcántara, R. & Nayak-Luke, R. Optimization of green ammonia distribution systems for intercontinental energy transport. iScience 24, 102903 (2021).

Article CAS PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Shatat, M. & Riffat, S. B. Water desalination technologies utilizing conventional and renewable energy sources. Int. J. Low Carbon Technol. 9, 1–19 (2014).

Article Google Scholar

Salmon, N. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. Green ammonia as a spatial energy vector: a review. Sustain. Energy Fuels 5, 2814–2839 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Alkaisi, A., Mossad, R. & Sharifian-Barforoush, A. A review of the water desalination systems integrated with renewable energy. Energy Procedia 110, 268–274 (2017).

Article Google Scholar

Curto, D., Franzitta, V. & Guercio, A. A review of the water desalination technologies.Appl. Sci. 11, 670 (2021).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Do Thi, H. T., Pasztor, T., Fozer, D., Manenti, F. & Toth, A. J. Comparison of desalination technologies using renewable energy sources with life cycle, PESTLE, and multi-criteria decision analyses.Water 13, 2023 (2021).

Article Google Scholar

Roy, P., Rao, I. N., Martha, T. R. & Kumar, K. V. Discharge water temperature assessment of thermal power plant using remote sensing techniques. Energy Geosci. 3, 172–181 (2022).

Article Google Scholar

Multi effect distillation. AquaSwiss http://aquaswiss.eu/desalination-solutions/multi-effect-distillation/ (2016).

Multiple Effect Distillation (MED). Veolia https://www.veoliawatertechnologies.com/asia/en/technologies/multiple-effect-distillation-med (2023).

Dresp, S. et al. Direct electrolytic splitting of seawater: activity, selectivity, degradation, and recovery studied from the molecular catalyst structure to the electrolyzer cell level. Adv. Energy Mater. 8, 1800338 (2018).

Article Google Scholar

Dresp, S., Dionigi, F., Klingenhof, M. & Strasser, P. Direct electrolytic splitting of seawater: opportunities and challenges. ACS Energy Lett. 4, 933–942 (2019).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Hauch, A. et al. Recent advances in solid oxide cell technology for electrolysis.Science 370, eaba6118 (2020).

Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Taibi, E., Blanco, H., Miranda, R. & Carmo, M. Green Hydrogen Cost Reduction (International Renewable Energy Agency, 2020).

SOEC Topsoe https://www.topsoe.com/our-resources/knowledge/our-products/equipment/soec#:~:text=The%20TOPSOE%E2%84%A2%20SOEC%20electrolyzer,and%20oxygen%20(O2) (2022).

Smit, R., Whitehead, J. & Washington, S. Where are we heading with electric vehicles? Air Qual. Clim. Change 52, 18–27 (2018).

Google Scholar

Babarit, A. et al. Techno-economic feasibility of fleets of far offshore hydrogen-producing wind energy converters. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy 43, 7266–7289 (2018).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Heidari, S. Economic Modelling of Floating Offshore Wind Power. MSc thesis, Mälardalen Univ. (2016).

ERA5 (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, 2021); https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era5

Salmon, N. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. A global, spatially granular techno-economic analysis of offshore green ammonia production. J. Clean. Prod. 367, 133045 (2022).

Article CAS Google Scholar

Wiser, R. et al. Expert elicitation survey predicts 37% to 49% declines in wind energy costs by 2050. Nat. Energy 6, 555–565 (2021).

Article Google Scholar

Ammonia Fertilizer Market and Price Analysis (S&P Global, 2022); https://ihsmarkit.com/products/fertilizers-ammonia.html

Garcia, L. DTN fertilizer outlook. Progressive Farmer https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/crops/article/2022/03/15/russia-ukraine-war-drives-world (2022).

Ammonia Market Volatility: Record Prices and an Extended Period of Black Sea Supply Disruption—What Does This Mean for New Pricing Mechanisms? (Argus Media, 2022); https://view.argusmedia.com/rs/584-BUW-606/images/FER-White%20Paper%20Ammonia%20Market%20Volatility.pdf

Crozier, C. & Baker, K. The effect of renewable electricity generation on the value of cross-border interconnection. Appl. Energy 324, 119717 (2022).

Article Google Scholar

Projects. Oceans of Energy https://oceansofenergy.blue/projects/ (2021).

Hill, J. S. Sunseap completes offshore floating solar farm in Straits of Johor. Renew Economy https://reneweconomy.com.au/sunseap-completes-offshore-floating-solar-farm-in-straits-of-johor/ (2021).

Golroodbari, S. Z. & van Sark, W. Simulation of performance differences between offshore and land-based photovoltaic systems. Prog. Photovolt. Res. Appl. 28, 873–886 (2020).

Article Google Scholar

Golroodbari, S. Z. M. et al. Pooling the cable: a techno-economic feasibility study of integrating offshore floating photovoltaic solar technology within an offshore wind park. Sol. Energy 219, 65–74 (2021).

Article Google Scholar

Driscoll, H., Salmon, N. & Bañares-Alcántara, R. Technoeconomic valuation of offshore green ammonia production using tidal and wind energy in the Pentland Firth. In Symposium on Ammonia Energy (University of Orléans, 2022).

Farr, H., Ruttenberg, B., Walter, R. K., Wang, Y.-H. & White, C. Potential environmental effects of deepwater floating offshore wind energy facilities. Ocean Coast. Manage. 207, 105611 (2021).

Article Google Scholar

Lindeboom, H. et al. Short-term ecological effects of an offshore wind farm in the Dutch coastal zone; a compilation. Environ. Res. Lett 1341, 35101–35113 (2011).

Article Google Scholar

Van de Ven, D.-J. et al. The potential land requirements and related land use change emissions of solar energy. Sci. Rep. 11, 2907 (2021).

Article PubMed PubMed Central Google Scholar

Ottinger, M. & Kuenzer, C. Spaceborne L-band synthetic aperture radar data for geoscientific analyses in coastal land applications: a review. Remote Sens. 12, 2228 (2020).

Article Google Scholar

Download references

This work was supported financially by the Rhodes Trust.

Department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Nicholas Salmon & René Bañares-Alcántara

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Both authors contributed to the conceptualization of the research. N.S. performed the analysis and led the writing of the manuscript. R.B.-A. provided input and helped to write the manuscript.

Correspondence to René Bañares-Alcántara.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Publisher's note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and Permissions

Salmon, N., Bañares-Alcántara, R. Offshore green ammonia synthesis. Nat. Synth (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00309-3

Download citation

Received: 06 November 2022

Accepted: 31 March 2023

Published: 01 June 2023

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-023-00309-3

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative