BP has announced plans to build a new green hydrogen terminal by 2028 at the port of Wilhelmshaven, northwest Germany, where green ammonia would be imported and then converted back to H2 using an industrial “cracker”.

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The oil giant said that the Grüner Ammoniak1 (Green Ammonia 1) project would be able to import up to 130,000 tonnes of green hydrogen from its international portfolio of H2 production projects around the world, which includes the 14GW Australian Renewable Energy Hub in Western Australia (formerly known as the Asian Renewable Energy Hub).

Last month, Germany unveiled a world-first €900m ($947m) tender for green ammonia imported from outside the EU, opening the door to profitable long-distance shipments.

Converting renewable electricity to hydrogen and then ammonia, and back to H2, might seem like an expensive, energy-intensive and wasteful way of importing clean energy. But according to a report published last week by the International Energy Agency, it would be cheaper to import hydrogen in the form of ammonia and then crack it back to hydrogen than simply importing liquefied H2.

This is due to ammonia’s superior energy density by volume, and the fact that liquid hydrogen must be stored at temperatures of minus 253°C, requiring very expensive, large storage tanks at both the export and import terminals.

However, the imported ammonia could also be sold directly, to be used as fertiliser or a base for chemicals production, thus removing the need for energy-intensive cracking back to hydrogen.

This would be particularly pertinent in Germany, where ammonia producers have been scaling back manufacturing due to high natural-gas prices over the past 12 months.

US industrial gases company Air Products announced a similar plan in November, to build a green ammonia import terminal in Hamburg (also in northwest Germany) and convert the cargo back into hydrogen.

Everyone loves Wilhelmshaven

Grüner Ammoniak1 is the third green hydrogen import terminal planned at Wilhelmshaven.

German energy company Uniper has recently completed a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Wilhelmshaven — the country’s first — which utilises a floating storage regasification unit (FRSU) to offload the gas. This facility is part of Germany’s race to wean itself off Russian gas — but Uniper says it also wants to use the site to import green hydrogen at a later date.

The Belgian company Tree Energy Solutions, alongside partners Fortescue Future Industries and E.ON, also plans to build a “green gas” terminal at Wilhelmshaven, which would import green hydrogen in the form of e-methane from Saudi Arabia.

Also, the Nord-West Oelleitung (NWO) consortium — which is 59%-owned by BP and operates a crude-oil import terminal at Wilhelmshaven — has already announced plans to build an FSRU-based LNG terminal at the port.

NWO has also announced a plan to produce blue hydrogen from imported Norwegian natural gas at its Wilhelmshaven site, in collaboration with independent oil producer Wintershall Dea, with the H2 being delivered to industrial customers via repurposed fossil-fuel pipes.

“BP also proposes using existing idle oil pipelines and converting existing gas pipeline infrastructure to transport hydrogen,” the company said of its new ammonia project.

The new plan already seems to have the backing of the state government of Lower Saxony, where Wilhelmshaven is located.

“In order to remain competitive and resilient as an industrial location in the long term, we must ensure an affordable, climate-neutral and secure energy supply,” said Lower Saxony’s environment minister Christian Meyer. “To do this, it is important that we diversify our supply sources and create fewer dependencies. The new BP hydrogen centre in Wilhelmshaven can play an important role here.”

Felipe Arbelaez, senior vice-president of hydrogen and CCS at BP, added: “The import facility complements BP’s global hydrogen project portfolio. We are currently developing a number of hydrogen and ammonia export sites in the Middle East, Africa and Australia. These could cover part of the European demand in the coming years.”

BP also has plans to produce green hydrogen in Lingen, Lower Saxony, and then transport that H2 to industrial consumers in the state and neighbouring North Rhine-Westphalia.