Q&A: Antwerp port plans 10mn t/yr NH3 imports by 2030

Infrastructure build-out will be essential in the development of low-carbon ammonia value chains to meet Europe's clean energy import ambitions. Ahead of the Argus Clean Ammonia Conference Europe in Antwerp this month, Argus spoke with the programme manager for hydrogen at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, Maxime Peeters. Capacity build-out, ammonia cracking, hydrogen transportation and bunkering solutions were discussed. Edited highlights follow.

REPowerEU has set a target of 20mn t/yr of green hydrogen consumption by 2030, one fifth of which should be covered by ammonia imports. What are the main developments taking place at the Port of Antwerp to facilitate this?

We are the biggest petrochemical cluster in Europe, so hydrogen and hydrogen derivatives already play quite an important role inside the port. There is existing infrastructure for ammonia, methanol and LNG.

We have existing import capacity, users, infrastructure and transit towards Germany for instance through barge, rail and pipeline. Today we have one large ammonia terminal in the port operated by BASF. Ammonia is both imported and produced on site and then used in Antwerp or transited towards Germany. That's how it works today.

Of course if we look at the 10mn t/yr hydrogen import ambition of Europe, there will be a much bigger need of ammonia imports, as ammonia is one of the major import molecules. We will need much more ammonia capacity, as well as methanol capacity.

We did a study with a coalition of several industrial partners - the hydrogen import coalition - looking at the Belgian and German markets and what needs to be done to make Belgium an import hub.

Germany will have an import demand by 2030 of around 90TWh/yr. We have the ambition to import a third of that - 30TWh. And for Belgium, we will need 10-15TWh of imports by 2030. That's a total of 45TWh/yr, or the equivalent of 1.2mn-1.5mn t hydrogen. That's roughly 6-10mn t/yr ammonia, or over 600,000m³ of open access ammonia capacity.

We've spoken to all of our tank-storage providers in the port, and in aggregate we have plans in place to meet 600,000m³ of additional open access ammonia capacity by 2030. We now need to move forward and reach financial investment decisions for several terminals. Most of them have an ambition to be on line by 2027, because the demand is there by 2030 with European targets. A lot of projects are already working on their permitting and they are having very detailed negotiations with capacity bookers, so we are moving in a very positive direction.

How has the current cost environment with increased inflation, energy and borrowing costs affected planned developments?

We talk to a lot of production projects globally and we do see that there is an increase of costs.

Borrowing money is more expensive and with inflation generally we have higher capital expenditure. The hydrogen import coalition did a recalculation of projected project costs from 3-4 years ago, and we found that costs of wind turbines, electrolysers and other included expenses meant that the total cost has escalated by 33pc. It is also harder to find EPC contractors willing to bear the risk. But we don't see any big roadblocks. Of course, there will be some filtering of those less mature and robust projects but that's normal in a maturing market.

What are the ports plans for ammonia cracking?

Most of the potential ammonia terminals want to build an ammonia cracker by 2027.

We'll have our first mid-scale cracker in Antwerp already in 2024 by Air Liquide, with scale-up planned for 2027. Fluxys has an ammonia terminal, VTTI plans to build one and we have SeaTank, Vesta and LBC who are all building tanks. Vopak has acquired new land in the port and plans to retrofit an old refinery site for new energy capacity, including ammonia. So a lot of market initiative is taking place.

Belgium's federal cabinet approved €250mn funding for a hydrogen transport network in July this year. What plans are in place for this?

The hydrogen import coalition estimates around 50pc of ammonia imports will be cracked for the hydrogen market, and 50pc will be used for ammonia uses in Belgium and Germany.

On the cracking level we need to distribute the hydrogen. The Belgian federal hydrogen strategy is supporting this with funds and with the appointment of a hydrogen network operator this year. The strategy has set forth that we will have an open access hydrogen backbone in Antwerp by 2026. Subsidies will only be applicable if the infrastructure is built by 2026, so 2026 is locked for a hydrogen network in Antwerp. Connection to Germany is planned for 2028, with extensions to the Netherlands and France by 2030.

The port of Antwerp is the fifth largest bunkering hub in the world. The port is already offering hydrogen bunkering options on a small scale. Do you have plans to facilitate any ammonia bunkering solutions?

Yes. We have a multi-fuel strategy. It sets forward that by 2025 we will make sure shipping lines that come here have the option to bunker the fuels that they want.

LNG is already possible at the port. We are working hard on both methanol and ammonia. We are working with bunkering companies, shipping lines, fuel suppliers and regulators to make sure that its possible in our port. We already get a lot of questions from shipping lines actually on the availability of ammonia and methanol.

How do you see market uptake of blue versus green ammonia?

Our position is that the long-term solution is green. But in the beginning, there won't be enough green. We will need blue in a transition period.

We have existing technology for carbon capture and storage which can drastically reduce the carbon emitted. It's a stepping stone towards green. In terms of the currently known status of the European targets, we only see a role for green. The blue market is more related to ETS emissions and reducing these.

By Lizzy Lancaster

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