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Green hydroammonia alcohol has multiple functions of hydrogen carrying, carbon sequestration and emission reduction, and the technology and market show multiple directions

Source：CenewsComCn

Release Time：5 months ago

Recently, at the "2024 Hydrogen-based Energy Green Development Forum" jointly organized by the Hydrogen Energy Center of China Consulting Corporation and Nengjing Research, Bai Jianming, executive deputy director of China Huadian Hydrogen Energy Technology Research Center and deputy general manager of Huadian Heavy Industry Co., Ltd., delivered a speech entitled "Current Situation and Development Prospects of Hydroammonia".

In his speech, Bai Jianming gave a wonderful introduction to the necessity, development status and development prospects of hydroammonia alcohol.

Some of the contents and views of the speech are excerpted for your reference. Part of it is as follows (first-person narration).

The energy revolution is moving towards decarbonization, with less carbon and more hydrogen

The development of green hydrogen energy is an effective way to build a new energy system.

In 2020, after China proposed China's carbon neutrality goal at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the hydrogen industry has developed rapidly. As a clean and low-carbon secondary energy source, hydrogen energy plays an important strategic role in the national energy system and industrial development. Hydrogen energy is a secondary energy source with a wide range of sources, high energy density, large-scale storage, environmental protection and low carbon, and rich application scenarios. China has formulated the "Medium and Long-term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035)", which makes it clear that hydrogen energy is the key development direction of strategic emerging industries.

Human energy use has been developing in the direction of low carbon. We have experienced three energy revolutions, the first energy revolution is the steam engine era (biomass-coal), the second energy revolution is the internal combustion engine era (coal-oil, natural gas), and the third energy revolution is the battery era (lithium batteries, hydrogen fuel cells).Energy has been moving towards decarbonization, with less and less carbon and more and more hydrogen. Hydroammonia is 21 A key technology of the energy revolution of the century.

The world is entering“hydrogen2.0”In the times, the hydrogen energy industry is moving towards green ammonia, green methanol, etc“Panhydrogen”Energy development.

The development of hydrogen energy also faces some challenges. The molecular weight of hydrogen energy is relatively small, which is not conducive to storage and liquefaction costs, and the problems limit the long-distance transportation of hydrogen energy.

The hydrogen energy industry is moving towards green ammonia, green methanol, etc“Panhydrogen”Energy development.Countries around the world have incorporated ammonia into their government energy strategies, and according to data released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, hydrogen and ammonia will each account for 10% of Japan's power generation fuels by 2030. As a major producer of traditional synthetic ammonia, China is actively making efforts in green ammonia production and ammonia energy utilization. Nobel laureate George Ola proposed a "methanol economy" to absorb CO2, couple renewable energy and chemicals, and build a green chemical system.

In addition, relevant academicians, experts and scholars at home and abroad also put forwardThree main lines to build a new energy system.

The first main lineIt is to develop new routes and technologies for the clean and efficient use and coupling of fossil energy with coal as the core, and break through the bottlenecks of high energy consumption, high water consumption and high emissions.

The second main lineIt is to break through the problem of multi-energy complementarity and large-scale application of low-carbon energy, promote the high proportion of renewable energy consumption, and build a smart energy system.

The third main lineIt is a forward-looking layout of the integrated development path of fossil energy/renewable energy/nuclear energy diversified energy system, and solves the structural defects of the lack of relevance and isolated development of China's existing energy technology systems. Hydrogen energy storage and transportation has great difficulties, one is light weight, low density, second is low liquefaction temperature, third is small atomic radius, and fourth is active nature, hydrogen energy storage and transportation problems promote the rapid development of hydrogen ammonia alcohol fusion.

There are three driving factors for the integrated development of hydroammonia

One is as a transport carrier for hydrogen.

Liquid ammonia hydrogen storage is a very good way to store hydrogen, liquid ammonia has a higher volume energy density than liquid hydrogen, ammonia is easier to liquefy than hydrogen, the same volume of liquid ammonia is at least 60% more hydrogen than liquid hydrogen, and ammonia has a special odor, providing early warning for potential leakage. In addition, the industrial production and application of ammonia has a history of more than 100 years.The technical system and storage and transportation infrastructure are complete。 Ammonia is available in pipelines, railways, ships, road trailers, warehouses and other modes of transportation, and may be one of the best ways to store and transport hydrogen in the future.

Methanol hydrogen storage is also an important way to store hydrogen, with a high hydrogen storage density of methanol, with a theoretical mass hydrogen storage density of up to 12.5 wt%. Methanol is lightning low, flammable, storage conditions are normal temperature and pressure, and there is no pungent odor, methanol is easy to degrade in aerobic and aquatic environments.

The second is as a carbon sequestration carrier.

Ammonia alcohol is a very good carbon fixation carrier. Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is a key technical means for China to achieve "carbon peak and carbon neutrality", but the front-end carbon capture link is costly, while the back-end carbon sequestration link has no economic benefitsCCUSThere are still challenges such as small scale and immaturity in the process of carbon dioxide conversion and utilization, which limit ChinaCCUSdevelopment.

Green methanol has a high carbon dioxide absorption capacity, and it can be converted per ton of green methanol1.4tons of carbon dioxide.Taking the chemical industry as an example, China has an annual methanol production capacity of about 80 million tons, and if green methanol is promoted on a large scale, it can directly absorb 110 million tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to increasing the forest stock by 270 million cubic meters.

At the same time, green methanol has a wealth of application scenarios, and with the expansion of green methanol application scenarios, the carbon dioxide absorption capacity will increase exponentially. In addition, compared to fossil fuels,Green methanol combustion does not produce additional carbon dioxide, and carbon is used but not increased, promoting carbon capture and carbon utilization to form a closed loop.

The third is to promote green and low-carbon transformation.

The synthetic ammonia industry is the chemical industry with the highest carbon emissions in China, so the development of green ammonia is an important way to solve carbon emissions. In addition, the energy endowment of coal and gas makes coal-to-methanol the main source of methanol, which is mainly gray alcohol, and vigorously developing green alcohol instead of gray alcohol can also promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the methanol industry.

The green ammonia production process is close to "zero carbon", which helps to achieve the "double carbon" goal. In 2021, the global direct carbon dioxide emissions of ammonia synthesis were about 450 million tons.The carbon emission reduction of ammonia itself is the focus, and the green ammonia produced through green electricity and green hydrogen can be close to it“Zero carbon”Emission.According to the International Energy Agency (EA), ammonia production will reduce the carbon intensity of ammonia production by 78% by 2050 in a sustainability scenario based on water electrolysis to hydrogen technology and CCS.

China is also the world's largest producer and consumer of ammonia and methanol, and the proportion of green supply will gradually increase

from 2020 Up to now, the state has issued a lot of industrial policies related to hydroammonia.

These policies encourage the innovation of green technology and the development of green environmental protection industries, and promote energy conservation, emission reduction and green transformation in key areas. The state has included green hydrogen, green alcohol and green ammonia in the state-encouraged development projects, creating conditions for the development of green hydroammonia.

At the same time, China is the world's largest producer and consumer of ammonia and methanol, and has begun to vigorously increase the proportion of green ammonia and green alcohol.As the world's largest producer and consumer of ammonia and methanol, China is actively making efforts in the "hydroammonia linkage" and striving to occupy a place at the forefront of innovation in the international energy industry. In 2022, the National Energy Administration proposed to actively explore new ways and ways to replace fossil energy such as green hydrogen, methanol, and ammonia.

In addition, in view of the superior wind, solar and water resources endowments in some parts of the west and northeast, the relevant departments uphold the principle of "green hydrogen for green electricity, green ammonia/green alcohol for green hydrogen", and open up the integrated industrial chain of "green electricity-green hydrogen-green ammonia/green alcohol".

Driven by various factors such as policies and markets, the proportion of green hydrogen ammonia alcohol supply will gradually increase.

In terms of hydrogen,In 2022, China's annual hydrogen production was 37.81 million tons, accounting for 37.1% of the world's total. Compared with the global hydrogen production structure, China is currently dominated by coal-to-hydrogen with its abundant coal reserves, and with the implementation of the "dual carbon" policy and the increase in demand for clean energy in the future,China will continue to increase the proportion of cleaner hydrogen production. At present, the market size of China's hydrogen energy industry has exceeded 500 billion yuan, and it is expected2027China's hydrogen energy industry is nearly half of the world's sizeThe development of China's hydrogen energy industry is largely based on the support and promotion of the government, including the macro level of hydrogen energy development planning and the implementation of financial subsidies.

In terms of ammonia synthesis,Global ammonia demand by 2050 is estimated to be more than three times what is expected in 2025, andMost of the new ammonia supply comes from green ammonia produced from renewable sources, with a multi-trillion market size.At present, the production of green ammonia is still in the exploration and initial stage, although there are many projects in the current layout of China, but the industrialization of green ammonia needs to be further promoted. In recent years, China's synthetic ammonia industry as a whole has shown a situation where production capacity has been decreasing year by year, output is generally stable, and imports still need to be imported to fill the gap.

In terms of methanol, as ofAt the end of 2022, the global methanol production capacity has exceeded 179 million tons, and China's production capacity has exceeded 100 million tons, accounting for nearly 58% of the world's total production capacity, and China has become the world's largest methanol producer. At the same time, because China has a very large industrial system, there is a huge demand for the consumption of methanol, a basic chemical.The domestic production capacity cannot meet its own consumption demand, and it still needs to fill the supply gap of methanol through imports.In 2022, China imported about 12 million tons of methanol, worth about $4.1 billion.

The preparation process of hydroammonia alcohol is parallel to multiple technologies

In terms of green hydrogen production,Alkaline electrolyzers and proton exchange membrane electrolyzers have been widely used.

In particular, alkaline electrolyzers are developing rapidly. At present, China Huadian alkaline electrolyzer has been mass-produced from 100 standard square to 2000 standard square, and this year we are ready to roll off the production line of 3000 standard square alkaline electrolyzer, and the technical performance of the entire electrolyzer has been greatly improved.

With the advancement of material localization and the gradual expansion of production capacity, the advantage of cost reduction will gradually be obvious in the future. Solid oxide water electrolysis technology and anion exchange membrane water electrolysis technology are still in the stage of small-scale test and laboratory testing, and there are great prospects for development in the future.

Ammonia is prepared in three ways.

The first is the traditional Haber-Bosch method, which is thermally catalytic + high temperature and high pressure coupling green hydrogen, and the application is the most mature.

The second is the flexible ammonia synthesis process, which is a technology widely used in China at present, with thermal catalysis + low temperature and low pressure coupling green hydrogen. This process mainly innovates the catalyst and process technology, so that the ammonia synthesis plant can still achieve an efficient ammonia synthesis process at a lower temperature (below 400 °C) and a lower pressure (below 10 MPa), effectively reducing energy consumption.

Huadian Group has developed and completed 200,000 tons of low-temperature and low-pressure green ammonia projects, and this year Huadian Group will lay out a number of green ammonia projects, and several projects are already in the early stage.

The third is photocatalytic ammonia production technology, which has not yet been used on a large scale and is still in the pilot and laboratory stages.

There are three technical routes for the preparation of methanol.

The first is the electrolysis of water route (electro-methanol) and the second is the biomethane route (biomethanol).

The third is the biomass gasification route (biomethanol). Huadian Group has made an in-depth layout in methanol, such as Huadian Xiangyang Power Plant, which has laid out a biomass gasification methanol project.

In addition, the preparation method of methanol is also divided into high pressure method, low pressure method and medium pressure method. I won't talk about it anymore because of the time relationship.

Hydroammonia has a wide range of application scenarios

The application scenarios of hydrogen are very wide, mainly green chemicals, metallurgy, transportation, power generation, etc.

One is that hydrogen can be applied to:Green chemical industry, mainly concentrated in the field of methanol synthesis of ammonia refining. Ammonia synthesis, methanol synthesis, and refining are the three major fields of chemical hydrogen, and more than 90% of the world's hydrogen is used in these three fields. Judging from the scale of global hydrogen demand of 90 million tons in 2020 and China's hydrogen demand of 33 million tons, there is huge room for substitution of green hydrogen in the industrial field.

The second is that hydrogen can be applied to:Hydrogen metallurgyIn the past, we used to make steel from coke, and now we use hydrogen to make steel. At present, there are a number of hydrogen metallurgy demonstration projects in China, including Baosteel, HBIS, etc., which have carried out hydrogen metallurgy projects.

The third is that hydrogen can be applied toTransportation, mainly heavy trucks, buses and other models. Recently, Shandong Province has introduced the relevant policies of exempting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles from highway tolls and tolls, and Inner Mongolia has introduced the policy that hydrogen refueling stations from water electrolysis do not need to enter chemical parks, breaking the bottleneck of hydrogen energy transportation applications and creating good conditions for the development of hydrogen in the transportation field.

Fourth, hydrogen can be applied toPower generation field, mainly distributed power generation, combined heat and power and other directions. Hydrogen energy storage has the characteristics of cross-seasonal, medium and long-term energy storage, and hydrogen energy storage can participate in the auxiliary services of peak regulation and frequency regulation of the power grid and carry out spot trading. At the same time, on the user side, it can also promote the multi-energy complementarity of cold, heat, electricity and gas, and improve the terminal energy efficiency and low-carbon level.

There are also many application scenarios for ammonia, including agriculture, chemical industry, power, fuel, etc.

One isAgriculture, mainly fertilizers.

The second isChemical industryGreen ammonia can be used to prepare various chemical products, such as nitric acid, ammonia, nylon, polyurethane, etc. The main application of green ammonia in fertilizer production is the synthesis of nitrogen fertilizers. Ammonia and other raw materials (such as carbon dioxide and phosphate) are chemically reacted to produce nitrogen fertilizers such as urea, ammonium nitrate, and ammonium phosphate.

The third isIn terms of powerIn 2022, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) estimated that the total global fuel demand will be about 218.9 million tons based on the consumption of international trade ships with a tonnage of more than 5,000 tons.Converted according to the calorific value, the corresponding green ammonia is about5.3100 million tons, it can be said that the potential application space of green ammonia in the ocean shipping scene is huge.According to Lloyd's Register of Shipping, between 2030 and 2050, the proportion of ammonia energy as a shipping fuel will increase from 7% to 20%, replacing liquefied natural gas and other major shipping fuels.

As a marine fuel, the amount of fuel oil corresponding to the calorific value of ammonia per ton is 0.418 t, and the CO2 emission is 1.33 t. On the whole, when the price of green electricity is 0.1~0.2 yuan/kW·h, the cost of green ammonia is within the competitive range of fuel oil price of 2600~4800 yuan. In summary, green ammonia, as an alternative marine fuel with zero carbon emission reduction, is also economically competitive compared with traditional fuel oil.

Four areFuelAt present, Japan and South Korea are developing relatively fast in the world, and Japan has achieved good results in two 300,000 units with ammonia doped combustion of 35%. Relevant domestic units are also carrying out research in this area, and Huadian Group is also carrying out work on ammonia-doped combustion this year.

The application scenarios of methanol include hydrogen storage medium, green chemical industry, ship fuel, etc.

Globally, about 65% of methanol is produced from natural gas processing, and about 35% is made from coal, and there is a large market space for green substitution of methanol.

One is that methanol can be used as:Energy storage and hydrogen storage medium.

The second is that methanol can be used asGreen chemical raw materialsMethanol to olefins, methanol fuel, and methanol to formaldehyde have long been the three most important downstream demand scenarios for methanol, and from a global perspective, formaldehyde is the largest use of methanol applications, and 27% of methanol is used for formaldehyde production.

The third is that methanol can be used asNew marine fuelsGreen/low-carbon methanol is an ideal alternative to LNG and traditional fuel oil in the short and medium term, and the global demand for methanol will increase by 14 million tons per year in the next five years, mainly due to green methanol. The 2020 Guide to Low-Carbon Marine Fuels and Energy, prepared by global research and advisory firm BLUE Insight and Bureau Veritas, points to a potential valuation of $1.4 trillion in the low-carbon marine fuel market.The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has predicted that to2050year, green methanol supply is expected to reach3.85100 million tons.

The reduction in the cost of electricity will drive the economics of green hydroammonia

The cost reduction of green hydrogen depends on the reduction of electricity costs.

Electricity cost is the core factor of hydrogen production by water electrolysis,The cost of electricity accounts for about 75% of the alkaline water electrolysis hydrogen production route, and about 60%-65% of the PEM water electrolysis hydrogen production route.

Reducing the unit cost of an electrolyzer is crucial.At present, the unit cost of alkaline electrolyzer has dropped from 2000-3000 yuan/kw to 1500 yuan/kw now, and the unit cost of PEM electrolyzer has dropped from 8000 yuan/kw to 4000 yuan/kw now, and the cost of hydrogen production by electrolysis of water has decreased very quickly.

According to the different sources of electric energy, hydrogen production from renewable energy can be divided into two types: grid-connected and off-grid, and the commercialization of grid-connected hydrogen production is relatively mature. With the continuous advancement of technology, the cost of hydrogen production from water electrolysis will decline rapidly. When the price of electricity is 0.1-0.2 yuan/kW.h, hydrogen production by water electrolysis has a certain competitive advantage compared with coal hydrogen production.

The cost reduction of green ammonia depends on the reduction of hydrogen costs.

The cost reduction of green ammonia comes from the reduction of the cost of green hydrogen electrolyzers, and the cost of green ammonia nitrogen is much higher than the cost of gray ammonia. From the perspective of domestic demonstration projects, the hydrogen consumption of ammonia synthesis is about 176 kg/t and the power consumption is about 1000 kW·h/t under the current technical conditions.The cost of hydrogen decreases1Yuan/kg, the cost of green ammonia can be reduced about176Yuan/t。

Green methanol is initially profitable.

The cost structure of green methanol (electro-methanol) is mainly composed of three parts: synthetic raw materials, synthesis process and equipment, and operating costs. The price of green hydrogen and renewable carbon dioxide, the two major synthetic raw materials, is the primary factor in determining the cost of green methanol.At present, the transaction price of Maersk green methanol in the international market is about1400Dollar/tons, at this price level, the current level of technology to produce methanol can be profitable.furthermoreCarbon dioxide capture technology and the abundance of biomass sources will help reduce the cost of methanol, and it can be said that the decline in methanol cost is an inevitable trend.

The development of technology and standards will promote the production and circulation of hydrogen, ammonia and alcohol to gradually mature.

In terms of technology, at present, from a national perspective, it is necessary to develop a centralized and large-scale demand for green electricity consumption of synthetic green ammonia/green methanol. Subject to the upgrading and transformation costs of traditional industries, the green transformation of some traditional production capacity of synthetic ammonia/methanol is still underway, and the core technology research of green ammonia/green methanol is imminent in the future, which requires continuous demonstration and verification to improve the flexibility of ammonia alcohol production process and adapt to the volatility of renewable energy.

In terms of standards, at present, there is no official organization certification for green ammonia in the world, and green methanol has the certification of relevant international organizations, which everyone is familiar with, so it will not be introduced. In the future, China will promote the integration and unification of green hydrogen-based energy standards, firstly, it is necessary to clarify the green hydrogen (ammonia, alcohol) standards at the national level and incorporate them into the certification system, secondly, to promote the deep integration of the hydrogen market and the carbon market, and thirdly, to promote the coupling development of green hydrogen and green certificates.

Region：China,Inner Mongolia,Shandong

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