Minnesota Facility Launches Low-Carbon Ammonia Production Powered by Wind Energy
Producing ammonia and fertiliser using wind power in Morris, Minnesota
A pioneering renewable ammonia demonstrator is now operational in Morris, Minnesota, powered by local wind turbines. This collaboration between the University of Minnesota, RTI International, and Casale aims to stabilize fertilizer prices and supply chains by producing low-carbon ammonia and urea. By adjusting production rates to match fluctuating wind energy, the plant avoids costly hydrogen storage, offering a scalable model for farmer cooperatives to keep fertilizer dollars within the state.
It seemed like an elegant concept when we were first looking at it that you could take a wind turbine, and that’s producing energy from wind above a cornfield, or small grain field, and then produce a nutrient that you can use right underneath the wind farms in rural Minnesota.
- epistasis
Perfect project for rural Minnesota, that needs the ammonia, but also has a surprising amount of solar colocated with farms. And a fair amount of wind in the southwest.
However there are far far larger projects going on over the world. China is building multiple GW of wind and solar to power a massive ammonia/green hydrogen site right now. I frequently hear of sites in Spain in the hundreds of MW range.
The US has been pivotal in the invention of these technologies, but hyper-conservatism to protect fossil fuel interests is preventing us from getting the benefits as quickly as we should.
- Animats
There are press releases which link to other press releases. Found the technical paper from 2021.[1]
The ammonia plant is built for intermittent operation, so it can shut down or reduce output when there's no wind. No need to store much electrical energy. Storage tanks hold the ammonia.
It's a reasonable idea, but is it cost-effective? No numbers are given. Still, fertilizer independence alone is worth something. You can do this anywhere with wind or sun.
- Alien1Being
China operates a massive green hydrogen and ammonia facility in Chifeng, which is powered entirely by off-grid wind and solar. The site already produces 320,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually.
This is going to be the century of China...
In contrast, this Minnesotan plant aims to scale up to 300 tonnes a year some day.
- jimnotgym
For those trying to work out the economics.
1 ton of urea is apparently worth $451
I think I would need to know the capex cost to go any further, but my gut feel is this is really a technical demonstration rather than an instant goldmine.
- thelastgallon
Use Solar/Wind and convert it to green hydrogen or green ammonia. We've reached the limits of pumped hydro and batteries are not dirt cheap yet. Green hydrogen and ammonia solve multiple problems. Both are fossil fuel products now.
Hydrogen is corrosive and explosive, next to impossible to store/transport safely. Green Hydrogen for immediate consumption at industries that require high heat and electricity is not an option.
Green ammonia for fertilizer and as energy storage.
With abundant oversupply of solar, we can start building alternatives to all fossil fuels.
- umvi
So basically: wind generators power electrolysis to create hydrogen, the hydrogen is fed to a normal Haber-Bosch plant which is still powered by coal or gas. So basically the wind power is just replacing the carbon footprint of a single input (hydrogen) to a H-B plant?
- ajdude
I think this is a [dup] of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49048819
- jimnotgym
I don't know about the US, but in the UK in times of high renewable production and low demand the electricity price goes negative. Sounds like a nice use for waste electricity, as well as your own renewables?
Would like to know the capex numbers though. Is it viable in todays market to have it stood idle?