Renewable-to-ammonia: Configuration strategy and technoeconomic analysis

Li Pan; Jiarong Li; Jingsi Huang; Qi An; Jin Lin; Asad Mujeeb; Yanhui Xu; Gengyin Li; Ming Zhou; Jianxiao Wang

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.108512

Renewable-to-ammonia: Configuration strategy and technoeconomic analysis

iScience. 2023 Nov 22;26(12):108512. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.108512. eCollection 2023 Dec 15.

Authors

Li Pan¹, Jiarong Li^{2

3}, Jingsi Huang⁴, Qi An¹, Jin Lin², Asad Mujeeb², Yanhui Xu¹, Gengyin Li¹, Ming Zhou¹, Jianxiao Wang^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Lab of Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources, North China Electric Power University, Beijing 102206, China.
² Department of Electrical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
³ Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁴ Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁵ National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Analysis and Applications, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
⁶ Peking University Ordos Research Institute of Energy, Ordos 017000, China.

Abstract

The increasing demand for chemical raw materials has provided opportunities for the ammonia (NH₃) industry. However, little attention has been devoted to the economic feasibility of renewable-to-ammonia (RE2A). Therefore, this paper proposes a technoeconomic model to research the optimal capacity configuration and quantify the levelized cost of ammonia (LCOA) for RE2A, which is a retrofitted plant based on coal-to-ammonia (C2A). A cost model of C2A is established as a benchmark to evaluate the economic feasibility of RE2A. A case study in Inner Mongolia is adopted, which shows that the monthly NH₃ output is 7-11×10³t, which satisfies actual industrial production. The LCOA of RE2A is 469$/t, with investment in wind turbines accounting for 58%, which is lower than the NH₃ market price (605$-650$/t). The LCOA of RE2A will equal that of C2A with a carbon tax of 47.1$/t CO₂, which confirms the economic advantages of RE2A in the future.

Keywords: Economics; Interdisciplinary application studies.