Hydrogen is critical for decarbonising the UK economy and achieving a net-zero future, with 250-460 Terawatt hours (TWh) of hydrogen needed annually by 2050 to meet government targets. However, current hydrogen storage technologies face limitations in capacity and efficiency. To address this, the UK government’s hydrogen strategy supports the development of innovative storage methods to enable hydrogen use in transport, energy balancing, and other applications.

Ammonia is a zero-carbon chemical rich in hydrogen and crucial to the hydrogen economy. It works well with existing liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) infrastructure, is easy to liquefy, and has a well-developed supply chain. It supports low-carbon hydrogen production targets for 2030 and is used as a green fertiliser and maritime fuel. However, currently, global ammonia production (176 million tonnes/year) relies on the energy-intensive Haber-Bosch process fuelled by fossil resources.

This project aims to revolutionise ammonia production by:
1. Using biomass gasification syngas as feedstock for hydrogen.
2. Deploying a novel nano-catalyst to operate at much lower pressures (~20 times lower than Haber-Bosch).
3. Applying system-level innovations to cut costs and carbon emissions.

Together, these approaches aim to create a negative-carbon pathway for ammonia production, driving sustainable progress in the hydrogen economy.