Porsgrunn is Yara’s facility in Norway to be converted to green ammonia production – Yara photo

Oslo: Yara announced plans for 500,000 tonnes per annum green ammonia production in Norway, powering emission-free shipping fuels and decarbonized food solutions.

“Ammonia is the most promising hydrogen carrier and zero-carbon shipping fuel, and Yara is the global ammonia champion,” chief executive Svein Tore Holsether said in a statement yesterday as his company unveiled plans to gear one of its Norwegian ammonia plants up to supply green ammonia to the shipping industry.

Ammonia’s chemical properties make it ideally suited for the hydrogen economy. It does not require cooling to extreme temperatures, and has a higher energy density than liquid hydrogen, making it more efficient to transport and store. Ammonia is therefore the most promising hydrogen carrier and zero-carbon shipping fuel read the press release.

Against this backdrop, Yara announced plans to fully electrify its ammonia plant in Porsgrunn, Norway with the potential to cut 800,000 tonnes of CO2 per annum, equivalent to the emissions from 300,000 passenger cars.

Furthermore, Danish utility Ørsted and Yara joined forces in October to develop a project in the Netherlands aiming at replacing fossil hydrogen with renewable hydrogen in the production of ammonia.

Ammonia is viewed by some to be the long-term winner of today’s battle for shipping fuel supremacy.