Reduce “global production costs by 10-30%”: Lummus Technology to globally deploy Ammobia ammonia synthesis technology

Ammobia and Lummus methodology tackle the indebted Kaber-Bosch process. Industrialized in 1913 by the German BasF, this synthetic route remains popular today by the world sector to create ammonia, a chemical product essential to the manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers, chemicals and even polymers. And if this methodology has experienced major improvements after several decades of consumption, it is nonetheless limited on certain aspects, in particular on its obligation to operate at high temperature and high pressure or even its inability to manage intermittent electricity (therefore renewable energies).

To surpass some of the limitations of the-Bosch, Ammobia, a California-based company founded in 2022, developed "Kaber-Bosch 2.0," a manufacturing process leveraging advances in materials science and catalytic processes to create "low-cost environmentally friendly ammonia." The promises offered by its methodology are tempting, since, according to the company, the process takes place around 30 bars against 200 bars to conventional synthesis and at a reduced temperature of 100 to 150 ° C compared to its grandfather. The facilities necessary to Kaber-Bosch 2.0 are also modular, breaking with the huge units currently deployed to synthesize ammonia, which can therefore be installed at plus near hydrogen producers. Overall, Ammobia says its methodology halts investment costs and overall production costs by 10-30%.

"Ambierdtria is revolutionizing the production of ammonia from any energy source thanks to a modular model [in plain language: knowing how to manage the intermittence of renewables, Editor's consider], unlike the gigantic factories that have shaped this sector pendant a century", maintains «Our customers can increase their production capacity through the construction of a new plant or the modernization of an existing site ”.

And tous those competitive advantages caught the eye of Lummus methodology. The Texas specialist in process technologies has signed an accord on the licensing and deployment of Ammobia's ammonia production system. Thanks to this collaboration, Kaber-Bosch 2.0 will be deployed in commercial facilities around the world and integrated into solutions complementary to Lummus's hydrogen offer, particularly in maritime fuels, energy storage and transport.

Driven by the increase in global demand to nitrogen fertilizers, cleaning items and disinfectors or the emergence of its consumption as an energy solution (maritime transport, alternative to coal in electricity production, etc.), the ammonia market should continue to grow. It is currently devoted to 70% of fertilizers, according to the International Energy Agency. A predominance which should continue in the face of the increase in the world population.