The Dutch port of Rotterdam could host a centralised ammonia cracking facility capable of delivering 1mn t/yr of hydrogen, a proposed project found to be technically and economically feasible in a study commissioned by the port authority and 17 companies involved in the plans.
The envisaged facility — which was first announced in December — could take around 20,000 t/d, or 7.3mn t/yr, of ammonia to enable output of 1mn t/yr of hydrogen, according to engineering and construction company Fluor, which carried out the study.
Fluor said there were "clear capital cost benefits" for building a centralised ammonia cracking plant, compared with companies each building their own facilities, because firms could share facilities for offloading and storing ammonia and for compressing the hydrogen product.
The capital cost of the ammonia cracking equipment worked out roughly equal in centralised and decentralised scenarios, because the size of available ammonia crackers dictates that multiple trains will be required even in a centralised plant, according to Fluor. But future increases in ammonia cracker size could allow for developers to use fewer trains, the firm said.
The study also established that the required technology is available from multiple providers with technology readiness levels around 6-9, where nine corresponds to mature and proven in an operational environment. Most providers offered conventional 'reformer' technology — similar to the kind already employed in production of conventional grey hydrogen, ammonia and methanol — but others were also available.
As a next step, the companies involved in the plans anticipate a more detailed evaluation of technology licensors, plant capacity and locations, storage, and ship unloading. Among the companies involved are BP, Shell and Saudi state-controlled Aramco, utilities such as Germany's Uniper and infrastructure firms like Dutch gas system operator Gasunie and terminal operator Vopak.
The cracker's envisaged size far outstrips similar facilities that are planned elsewhere. These include one envisaged by BP in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany that could allow for hydrogen supply of around 130,000 t/yr, and a Hamburg site proposed by energy trading firm Mabanaft and industrial gas company Air Products that could receive up to 1.2mn t/yr of ammonia.
Hydrogen output from the Rotterdam centralised cracker would be equivalent to 25pc of the port's goal of 4mn t/yr of hydrogen imports by 2030. The port has signalled openness to receive hydrogen transported by various methods that, besides ammonia, include liquefied hydrogen and liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC).
