Adnoc and Thyssenkrupp to explore large-scale ammonia cracking

UAE state company taps German technology firm amid growing interest in scaling up ammonia cracking capacity in Europe

UAE state-owned oil company Adnoc has signed a memorandum of understanding with Thyssenkrupp Uhde, a subsidiary of German engineering and steel conglomerate Thyssenkrupp, to explore the development of large-scale ammonia cracking facilities using the latter’s technology. Ammonia is emerging as the leading method of transporting hydrogen overseas in the near term, owing to existing infrastructure and standards for safe transportation, storage and use. Europe has 18 ammonia terminals, which imported 4mn t/yr of the fuel in 2020—a fraction of the estimated 22.5mn t/yr required to meet the EU’s import target of 4mn t/yr of “hydrogen-as-ammonia”. However, the figure actually needs to be 30mn t/yr