Electrified ammonia production as a commodity and energy storage medium to connect the food, energy, and trade sectors

Milind Jain; Rithu Muthalathu; Xiao-Yu Wu

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104724

Electrified ammonia production as a commodity and energy storage medium to connect the food, energy, and trade sectors

iScience. 2022 Jul 4;25(8):104724. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104724. eCollection 2022 Aug 19.

Authors

Milind Jain¹, Rithu Muthalathu², Xiao-Yu Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
² Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.

Abstract

Ammonia, a versatile chemical that is distributed and traded widely, can be used as an energy storage medium. We carried out detailed analyses on the potential economic risks and benefits of using power-to-ammonia in three use pathways in the food, energy, and trade sectors, i.e., local sales, energy storage, and export under different levelized cost of ammonia (LCOA) scenarios. The base-case LCOA is lower than the market price, making local sales and export pathways profitable, and yet the energy storage pathway is at a loss unless ammonia-to-power efficiency is significantly improved. Four different combined use scenarios were also studied. Results show that under the base case LCOA and market assumptions, the combined use pathway leads to a loss of US$30 million. But a combined use pathway can become more profitable when there are higher predicted ammonia prices, larger export demand for low-carbon ammonia, and technology development.

Keywords: Energy management; Energy modeling; Energy policy; Energy resources.