Saudi energy giant Aramco will partner with global industrial gases and engineering company Linde Engineering to jointly develop a new ammonia cracking technology. The collaboration between the two companies will combine Linde Engineering and Aramco’s experience and capabilities in industrial research and development, lower-carbon hydrogen, and ammonia cracking technology, Aramco said in a press release.
A potential differentiator of this new technology is the ammonia cracking catalyst, jointly developed by Aramco and the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), which will be evaluated against other catalysts.
Through this agreement, Aramco and Linde Engineering plan to build a demonstration plant in northern Germany to showcase this new ammonia cracking technology. Linde Engineering intends to offer this ammonia cracking technology to current and new customers, creating new commercial opportunities within the global lower-carbon energy supply chain. The emerging lower-carbon ammonia business may prove to be key in bridging the gap between a country’s domestic renewable energy production capacity and total energy demand.
Ahmad Al-Khowaiter, senior vice president and CTO of Aramco, said: “This agreement is part of our ongoing technology and business development efforts to establish a commercially viable lower-carbon hydrogen supply chain. We believe the advanced ammonia cracking technology we are co-developing with Linde Engineering will play a key role in realizing our objectives.”