Ammonia might be the world’s most underappreciated chemical. Without it, crops would go unfertilized and billions of people would starve. Humans started making ammonia in large amounts just over a century ago, and since then the process used to make it, known as Haber-Bosch, has not changed much. A new startup, Ammobia, says that it has tweaked the Haber-Bosch process to lower the cost by up to forty percent.
To prove the technology works on a larger scale, Ammobia has raised a seven and a half million dollar seed round. Investors include Air Liquide’s venture arm ALIAD, Chevron Technology Ventures, Chiyoda Corporation, MOL Switch, and Shell Ventures.
If the startup succeeds, it could pave the way for ammonia to be used beyond fertilizer. Ammonia is viewed by some as an alternative to hydrogen to decarbonize a range of industries. Countries like Japan and South Korea have developed industrial and transportation roadmaps that rely on ammonia. Hydrogen, the other leading contender, is not as energy dense and its transportation infrastructure is not as well developed as ammonia’s. The big advantage of ammonia is that it is much easier and more cost-effective to transport and store, which opens up a range of opportunities.
But those opportunities will not amount to much if ammonia production does not clean up its act. The Haber-Bosch process is one of the world’s big polluters, producing nearly two percent of global greenhouse gases.
To make ammonia, plants using Haber-Bosch employ an iron catalyst to force one molecule of nitrogen to react with three molecules of hydrogen. The reaction requires high heat and pressure to sustain, both of which tend to be supplied by burning fossil fuels. Fossil fuels also provide some of the gas needed as a feedstock. Nitrogen is easy to obtain, but most hydrogen used in ammonia production is made by using steam to break apart methane molecules found in natural gas.
Ammobia’s process runs at around one hundred and fifty degrees Celsius cooler and at ten times lower pressure. As a result, plants that adopt the technology stand to produce less pollution, even if they do not ditch fossil fuels. The startup also says its process saves cost up front, as it can use cheaper pumps and equipment because it does not need to hit high temperatures and pressures.
That could give producers an edge. Because nearly every ammonia producer uses Haber-Bosch, they have typically had only two ways to reduce costs: find a cheaper source of heat or a cheaper source of hydrogen. Ammobia is not seeking to change that right away. The startup emphasizes that its process works with any source of hydrogen or heat. But it does have some key differences from traditional Haber-Bosch that could encourage cleaner sources of each.
Because Ammobia’s process runs at lower pressure, it is easier to ramp production up and down, which could allow renewable developers to take advantage of surplus electricity production to make cheap hydrogen and thus cheap ammonia. The technology is very compatible with renewable energy, which leads to an additional cost reduction because you do not need to store hydrogen or store electricity. In these situations, the company claims to have the strongest cost advantage.
The reduced temperature and pressure requirements also allow Ammobia to make its equipment smaller than a typical Haber-Bosch plant. Most ammonia facilities today generate between one thousand and three thousand tons per day, while Ammobia’s commercial-scale unit will produce two hundred and fifty tons per day. Customers that need more can install multiple units.
Ammobia did not share details on how it tweaked Haber-Bosch to run at lower temperature and pressure, but there are a few hints out there. The company has a patent pending on a reactor system that incorporates a sorbent to remove ammonia as it is formed to free up space on the catalyst for another reaction to take place. Researchers have also been investigating non-iron catalysts, including manganese nitride, which use less energy to keep the chemical reaction going.
The startup has been operating a small unit for about a year, and the new funding will help the company build a pilot plant that contains all the features of the commercial model on a smaller scale, about ten tons per day. With that modular approach, the company can build projects faster and start at a medium scale. They see that a lot of customers are looking for that type of solution, and there is no solution out there today.