FAQ
Is Ammonia toxic?
Ammonia is indeed hazardous, especially if released in large quantities. Generally, ammonia’s safety challenges are manageable through widely used industrial best practices and standards which allow over 200 million tonnes of ammonia to be safely produced in over 60 countries of varying income levels. Many millions of tonnes are stored and transported every year via truck, pipeline, and tanker ships. Compared with other toxic liquefied and pressurized gases used throughout the world, the number of accidents and deaths caused by ammonia are proportionately very low. Nevertheless, like hydrogen, ammonia is a substance that needs careful safety measures and control.
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Ammonia should only be handled by trained operators in a controlled setting and relevant PPE. Ammonia can be fatal if inhaled at high concentrations. However, its pungent odor can be detected in concentrations as low as 5 ppm, far below the dangerous levels.
At Hymonic, safety is our top priority and we are happy to discuss this topic more with you!
How do I store Ammonia?
At distributed scales, ammonia is most often stored as a liquid at ambient temperature in a mildly pressurised tank (similar to LPG – 5-15 barg depending on the ambient temperature). At larger scales, ammonia is stored at a liquid at atmospheric pressure and refrigerated to –34C. Tanks for storing ammonia are widely available and low cost. Today, ammonia is often stored and used at industrial food processing facilities and ice-skating rinks as a refrigerant.
Why not use Ammonia directly as fuel?
While some applications are indeed investigating ammonia as a direct fuel (such as large reciprocating maritime engines), ammonia presents difficulties with combustion, including slow flame speed for small engines and high NOx emissions. Therefore, many applications are looking at hydrogen as fuel which is more easily combusted and can also be used to directly generate electricity via a fuel cell. For vehicles like trucks and buses, the hydrogen fuel cell is an efficient and mature technology, and the challenges with onboard hydrogen have been solved, while not yet for ammonia.
What is the position of the EU on Ammonia Cracking?
Almost all EU Member States recognize the important role of hydrogen in their national energy and climate plans for the 2021-2030 period. About half have explicit hydrogen-related objectives, focused primarily on transport and industry. Many countries are now explicitly targeting hydrogen import via ammonia, with Germany's latest "National Hydrogen Strategy Update" (July 2023) states "According to the Federal Government’s assessment based on an analysis of the current scenarios, around 50 to 70 percent (45 to 90 TWh) of the 95 to 130 TWh demand forecast for 2030, will be covered by imports from abroad (in the form of hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives)."