A recent study published by the NGO Clean Air Task Force (CATF) states that the process of breaking down imported blue ammonia into hydrogen is "expensive and inefficient" and should be reduced. The study notes that this energy-intensive process pushes up the cost of hydrogen by 40-50%.
The CATF study highlights that for the vast majority of cases, using uncracked ammonia is the cheapest way to import blue hydrogen to Europe. The EU should investigate which part of the EU's expected demand for blue hydrogen can be met in this way.
The Technical Economic Realities of Long-Range Hydrogen Transport report states that import routes for long-distance transport that rely on liquefied pure hydrogen or liquid organic hydrogen carriers that require dehydrogenation at the point of entry to release pure hydrogen should be avoided because these pathways do not make sense from an energy, emissions or economic point of view.
Hydrogen Insight's analysis using CATF data shows that the dehydrogenation process — where hydrogen molecules are "liberated" from NH3 — increases the equivalent levelized cost of hydrogen by 40-50 percent. For example, blue hydrogen imported into Rotterdam from the Arabian Gulf as blue ammonia costs $1.8/kg if not cracked, but when cracked back into hydrogen, it costs $2.7/kg, which is 50% higher.
The CATF said Europe should use the findings to prioritise decarbonizing existing ammonia demand in areas such as fertilizer production. The group added that the EU could consider stimulating the development of relevant technologies and infrastructure in applications where "there are no more effective or cost-effective decarbonisation options". This could include "decarbonization of the maritime sector, where ammonia could replace currently highly polluting fuels".
Although the study focused only on imports of blue hydrogen, it could be a wake-up call for green hydrogen importers such as Air Products. Air Products is planning to buy all the hydrogen from a large NEOM renewable ammonia plant in Saudi Arabia, most likely delivered in the form of hydrogen to the Nordic automotive market.
Notably, the only area where importing uncracked blue ammonia is more expensive than another blue hydrogen import route is hydrogen delivered from Norway, where the average cost of H2 produced by gaseous blue hydrogen imported by pipelines is slightly lower than uncracked ammonia.
However, the price of $2.6/kg is still significantly higher than the cost of uncracked ammonia from the Arabian Gulf, which is around $1.8/kg. In all other cases, the average cost of unlyzed ammonia was the lowest, followed by ammonia imported from pipelines in Algeria and Norway, followed by pyrolytic ammonia.
A CATF spokesperson revealed: "If ammonia can be used directly by end users, policymakers should highly consider not cracking ammonia. This is because it is much cheaper to import uncracked ammonia than to import hydrogen via the LOHC or LH2 route, just to convert it into NH3. He added: "In some cases, the levelized cost of hydrogen imported uncracked ammonia is even lower than the cost of pipelines." This may be redundant to emphasize existing ammonia applications such as amino fertilizer production. But this is worth highlighting for end uses, such as ocean transportation, where both ammonia and hydrogen can be used as fuel. ”
He concluded: "In these import situations, the LOHC and LH2 pathways are indeed inefficient. While we do not want to exclude these import pathways entirely, policymakers should carefully examine any funding deployed for these import routes and possibly reserve them for specific circumstances. ”
PS: attached "Technical economic realities of long-distance hydrogen transport"