ACWA, OQ, Air Products plan Omani green ammonia project

HOUSTON (ICIS)–ACWA Power, OQ and Air Products signed a joint development agreement to develop a green ammonia project in Oman, the companies said on Thursday.

The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding (MoU) that the three signed in December.

The project would use wind and solar energy to power an electrolyser, which will split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

An air separation unit would extract nitrogen from the atmosphere. Another plant would produce ammonia from the nitrogen and the green hydrogen produced from the electrolyser.

The companies would build the project in Oman’s Salalah Free Zone and they would own equal stakes.

The companies did not specify timelines or capacities.

However, Air Products CEO Sefi Ghasemi said the Omani project would be similar to the one that his company is developing with other companies in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi project involves:

• more than four gigawatts (GW) of renewable power from solar, wind and storage
• production of 650 tonnes/day of hydrogen by electrolysis
• production of 1.2m tonnes/year green ammonia

The Saudi project plans to export the ammonia. Once the ammonia arrives at market, the hydrogen will be extracted and used as fuel.