Blue and green ammonia production: A techno-economic and life cycle assessment perspective
Patricia Mayer,
Adrian Ramirez,
Giuseppe Pezzella,
Benedikt Winter,
S. Mani Sarathy,
Jorge Gascon,
André Bardow
Affiliations
Patricia Mayer
Energy & Process Systems Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
Adrian Ramirez
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia; Catalysis Hub, SwissCAT+ East, ETH Zürich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland
Giuseppe Pezzella
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia
Benedikt Winter
Energy & Process Systems Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
S. Mani Sarathy
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Clean Combustion Research Center (CCRC), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia
Jorge Gascon
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST Catalysis Center (KCC), Thuwal 23955, Saudi Arabia; Corresponding author
André Bardow
Energy & Process Systems Engineering, Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland; Corresponding author
Summary: Blue and green ammonia production have been proposed as low-carbon alternatives to emissions-intensive conventional ammonia production. Although much attention has been given to comparing these alternatives, it is still not clear which process has better environmental and economic performance. We present a techno-economic analysis and full life cycle assessment to compare the economics and environmental impacts of blue and green ammonia production. We address the importance of time horizon in climate change impact comparisons by employing the Technology Warming Potential, showing that methane leakage can exacerbate the climate change impacts of blue ammonia in short time horizons. We represent a constrained renewable electricity availability scenario by comparing the climate change impact mitigation efficiency per kWh of renewable electricity. Our work emphasizes the importance of maintaining low natural gas leakage for sustainability of blue ammonia, and the potential for technological advances to further reduce the environmental impacts of photovoltaics-based green ammonia.
