AFC Energy Announces Milestone on its Next Generation Ammonia Cracker Reactor Technology

AFC Energy (AIM: AFC), a leading provider of hydrogen power generation technologies, is pleased to update the market on its ongoing successes evidenced from its next generation modular ammonia cracker reactor technology. 

Highlights

·      Latest modular ammonia cracker architecture has achieved better than expected operational efficiency achieving 9.5 kWh of electrical power consumed per kilogram of hydrogen generated [1]. 

·      This is a 33% saving in electrical power over our 2023 design and has hit our milestone of <10 kWh/kg, a year ahead of schedule.

·      The European Parliament asserts[2] today’s electrolysers require between 50-55kWh/kg of hydrogen produced – suggesting AFC Energy’s ammonia cracker will deliver distributed modular hydrogen at < 1/5^th of the power demand of an equivalent sized electrolyser.

·      AFC Energy’s cracker design benefits from being able to utilise heat and / or waste hydrogen byproducts to lower the electrical power demand even further. 

·      The cracker reactors have reached full operation within 10 minutes of being started at room temperature, a further benefit of our modular cracker architecture.  Previous architectures have taken several hours to achieve the same operating state, giving rise to a flexible system that can rapidly respond to demand profiles.

·      AFC Energy has successfully operated its proprietary fuel cell technology with the latest generation of its ammonia cracker reactor highlighting the potential hydrogen purity levels achievable.  The power from the fuel cell was used to charge electric vehicles from ammonia fuel. 

 

 

AFC Energy’s latest generation ammonia cracker technology affords world class efficiency in the reconversion of hydrogen from ammonia at less than 10 kilowatt hours / kilogram of hydrogen compared to electrolysers which are generally rated between 50 and 55 kilowatt hours / kilogram of hydrogen.  This reaffirms the thesis that green hydrogen production from green ammonia makes economic sense in grid constrained and high power cost countries (such as Europe and the UK). 

The production of green hydrogen through electrolysis (separating water into hydrogen and oxygen) is an energy intensive process and therefore requires large volumes of low cost renewable energy to be commercially viable.  Those countries that are forecast to be the largest producers of green hydrogen are therefore likely to be those with the lowest cost renewable sources such as solar, hydro and wind.  For example, the world’s largest announced green hydrogen project is located in Saudi Arabia as part of the US$8bn NEOM project where low cost, abundant solar and wind power are to be used. 

However, global demand for hydrogen has been identified in locations such as Europe and Asia that do not always benefit from such low cost renewable energy.  For this reason, the international trade of hydrogen as a fuel from countries such as Saudi Arabia to Europe is growing.  Like the LNG industry, hydrogen gas is planned to be converted into liquid form, such as ammonia, before export to maximise the energy density of the fuel during transport (liquid is more energy dense than gas).  Again, the NEOM green hydrogen project is one such example.        

Upon arrival at its import destination, the ammonia will be cracked to liberate hydrogen fuel at the point of demand.  AFC Energy’s ammonia cracker has the potential to play a key role in this process and the new efficiency levels achieved support this. 

 

Adam Bond, Chief Executive at AFC Energy, said: 

“AFC Energy’s market leading ammonia cracker technology places us in an excellent position to further build out our first series of modular packaged units for customer evaluation.  We have welcomed many visitors to our larger cracker demonstration utilizing prior year’s technology since its launch during COP28 in Dubai last year further evidencing the growth in market demand we can expect for our cracker technology”.

 

[1] When run on 100% electrical power

[2] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2020/641552/EPRS_BRI(2020)641552_EN.pdf

 

About AFC Energy

AFC Energy plc is a leading provider of hydrogen energy solutions, to provide clean electricity for on and off grid power applications. The Company’s fuel cell technology is now deployable as electric vehicle chargers, off-grid decentralised power systems for construction and temporary power with emerging opportunities across maritime, data centres and rail as part of a portfolio approach to the decarbonisation of society’s growing electrification needs.

 

 

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