A Siemens Energy led consortium has begun work in Newcastle, UK on a new £3.5m ammonia cracker prototype designed to produce green hydrogen at industrial scale and help tackle climate change and reduce carbon emissions.
The ammonia cracker system will provide the potential to produce green hydrogen at scale, wherever and whenever it is needed. The system will be designed to deliver high-purity hydrogen, suitable for PEM fuel cell use, using FFI’s metal membrane technology (MMT) purification process. The MMT process is key to producing high-purity hydrogen from the ammonia cracking process. It selectively filters the hydrogen while blocking other gases, allowing it to be used as a fuel and converted as needed, at the time of re-fuelling.
Siemens Energy have proven experience of innovation with ammonia. The team previously led a collaborative project at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL) in Oxfordshire. The £1.5m proof-of-concept facility showcased an ammonia-based energy storage system that turned electricity, water and air into ammonia without releasing carbon emissions. The ammonia is stored, before being used for electricity generation.
The UK Government estimates that hydrogen could make up to one third of the UK’s energy mix by 2050 but there are challenges with hydrogen storage and transport that need to be addressed to make this viable. The £3.5m ammonia cracker prototype aims to help tackle these challenges.
The partnership is a collaboration between Siemens Energy, Siemens Energy Ventures, FFI, GeoPura and Innovate UK.
For more information visit Siemens Energy’s website