Innovation

Plan unveiled to produce green hydrogen and ammonia on a ship connected to a 1.5GW wind farm in Greenland

The PXFloater vessel allows H2 and NH3 to be produced in places where renewable energy is cheapest without huge investment in permanent onshore facilities

A rendering of the P2XFloater vessel moored near the planned Greenland wind farm.
A rendering of the P2XFloater vessel moored near the planned Greenland wind farm.H2Carrier

A Norwegian start-up has unveiled a plan to produce green hydrogen and ammonia on board a ship connected to a 1.5GW onshore wind farm in western Greenland.

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H2Carrier says that its P2XFloater vessels — essentially converted LNG carriers — would contain all the equipment needed to produce renewable H2 and NH3 for export at a far lower cost than building permanent onshore facilities.

“The P2X Floater is advantageously flexible in its positioning, as it can seek out places where renewable energy is cheapest, even on a seasonal basis. This could potentially utilise the lowest renewable power prices in the world, thus producing bottom-dollar green ammonia,” it explains.

The Norwegian company has signed a letter of intent with Greenland-based developer Anori to develop the first commercial wind farm in the Arctic territory, with the power generated used to produce green ammonia for export.

The partners, who are talking to potential backers, hope to take a final investment decision in July 2025, with first ammonia production from late 2028.

Location of the planned project in western Greenland.Photo: Google Maps

Greenland — situated between Europe and North America — is one of the windiest places on Earth, with plenty of available land and water, and a tiny population of about 56,500, making it an attractive location to build enormous wind farms for the production of green hydrogen and ammonia.

The P2XFloater, which is still at the concept stage, would produce green hydrogen by purifying seawater and splitting the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen using onboard electrolysers powered by a high-capacity cable to shore.

Nitrogen would be extracted from the air using onboard modules, with the gas then being combined with the hydrogen in an onboard ammonia production plant using the century-old Haber-Bosch process.

The NH3 would then be stored in onboard refrigerated storage tanks until required, and transferred to a another carrier vessel using a built-in mechanical arm and hose, without the need for a pier or pipeline infrastructure.
By converting existing LNG vessels, it not only eliminates the need to build onshore facilities, but it also reduces the amount of new steel — manufactured today with high CO2 emissions — that would be required for onshore facilities and pipelines.

“Greenland is uniquely positioned to take a leading role internationally for supply of green ammonia and locally, a significant industrial project of this magnitude will be important to the Greenland society by way of employment opportunities and positive economic impact,” said H2Carrier CEO Mårten Lunde.

The chairman of Anori, Nicolai Fossar Fabritius, a former director at Danish wind turbine maker Vestas, added: “At present, less than 1% of the global ammonia consumption globally is produced from renewable energy. We need to turn this around to come closer to 100% as soon as possible in order to reach the targets of the Paris Agreement.”

Fabritius told Recharge that the entire project would cost more than €2bn ($2.1bn), with its next step to conduct wind measurements and prepare for several years of environmental studies at a 100sq km site in western Greenland, on the Nordlandet peninsula south of the settlement of Atammik.
Ammonia is generally produced today from grey hydrogen made from natural gas or coal, with the energy-hungry Haber-Bosch process usually powered by fossil fuels. The Haber-Bosch process itself is said to account for more than 1% of all global CO2 emissions.

Ammonia is used to produce fertiliser and other chemicals, and is increasingly being touted as a future zero-carbon shipping fuel. It can also be cracked back into hydrogen and nitrogen in another energy-intensive process.

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Published 4 January 2023, 11:39Updated 4 January 2023, 14:20