Aramco is a leading energy and chemicals company with oil and gas production as its primary business. The solutions mentioned here are in the first stages of commercial deployment.
Explore new energy solutions
To learn more about our energy innovations, sign up for Elements newsletter.
How can transporting the world’s first commercial shipment of blue ammonia…
… change the way we think about alternative energy sources?
Why hydrogen?
We’re unlocking tomorrow’s energy
Hydrogen is not only the most abundant element in the universe. It could also play an essential role in tomorrow’s energy mix, from fueling cars, trains, trucks, and ships to generating electricity and heating buildings. That’s because it’s a colorless, clean fuel that emits only water when burnt or oxidized.
Its potential as an energy carrier is therefore a key part of our vision to deliver a lower-emissions future with today’s infrastructure and help meet tomorrow’s needs for people and the planet.
A circular carbon economy
For over a decade, we’ve explored potential technologies to produce high-purity hydrogen from hydrocarbons, including Thermo-Neutral Reforming (TNR) and a catalyst for converting diesel into hydrogen.
From day one, our ambition has been to create “blue” hydrogen – extracting the valuable gas while also capturing all the CO2 emissions.
This content is blocked
You need to give permission.
When methane burns it creates hydrogen and CO2, but what makes blue hydrogen different is that we capture these CO2 emissions and then inject and sequester them (store them in sinks). This forms part of our vision for a circular carbon economy.
We use two innovative technologies to utilize the captured CO2. The first involves injecting it into one of our oil reservoirs for Enhanced Oil Recovery, while the other takes the waste CO2 and converts it into chemicals, such as methanol, for industrial use. Any additional CO2 can also be safely sequestered deep underground.
Key facts
HYDROGEN IN NUMBERS
-254°C
temperature of liquefied hydrogen
$26.4 million1
Aramco spend on low-carbon hydrogen, 2022
BLUE AMMONIA IN NUMBERS
World’s first
shipment by Aramco, 2020
11 million tons a year
to be shipped by 2030*
*Equivalent to approximately 363 terawatt-hours, which is more than the total demand for power across the UK.
Cutting transportation costs
Creating blue hydrogen was only half of the solution. The next challenge we had to overcome was how to affordably store and deliver this revolutionary fuel to where it was needed.
Hydrogen is a very light molecule. It can be liquefied, but that requires keeping it at a temperature of -254°C, which makes it very difficult and expensive to transport – particularly over long distances.
The solution lay in converting the hydrogen into a chemical compound which is already widely traded around the world: ammonia.
Compared to hydrogen, liquefied ammonia is far more convenient, practical, and cost-effective to transport, in terms of both the required temperature and pressure conditions.
Once the blue ammonia reaches its destination, it can be converted back into blue hydrogen, or used directly as a fuel for gas turbines for cleaner power generation.
Blue ammonia: a world-first
In 2020, we successfully completed one of our most ambitious pilot projects to date – a supply network demonstration covering the complete hydrocarbon value chain through SABIC and in partnership with the Institute of Energy Economics Japan (IEEJ).
These ambitions were realized in August 2020, when we successfully shipped 40 tons of high-grade blue ammonia to Japan. The blue ammonia itself was transported to three facilities in Japan, where 20% ammonia was successfully co-fired with coal, and the same ratio with natural gas in existing power stations.
In 2022, we acquired the world’s first certification of lower-carbon blue ammonia and blue hydrogen production from TÜV Rheinland, and a total of over 45,000 tons of hydrogen was delivered overseas to East Asia by our affiliate, SABIC Agri-Nutrients, and the joint-venture Saudi Aramco Shell Refinery Company.
This is one of many initiatives that may help both South Korea and Japan realize their ultimate ambition of becoming low-emissions societies. According to the IEEJ, about 10% of power in Japan could one day be generated by blue ammonia.
Synthetic fuels
Hydrogen and other fuel-cell technologies also have huge potential as a sustainable transport fuel for the future.
In 2019, Aramco established the first hydrogen fueling station in Saudi Arabia, while countries such as Japan, China, and South Korea are also investing in hydrogen-charging stations and infrastructure.
This increasing demand for hydrogen helps demonstrate the importance of our ability to transport it around the globe in the form of blue ammonia, at considerably lower cost.
Pioneering cleaner fuels
There are still several challenges ahead, such as developing ways to convert a higher percentage of the hydrocarbon energy into hydrogen, and working together with our partners around the world to establish wider infrastructures and supply chains for power generation and hydrogen-powered vehicles.
However, it’s clear that converting natural gas into blue hydrogen could be key to generating affordable, reliable, and sustainable lower-carbon energy for everyone.
We are invested in tomorrow and embrace our role in developing the ideas and practical solutions needed for a stable, realistic, and inclusive energy transition. Each innovative breakthrough is a vital step closer to a brighter future, for all. And we will not stop until we are there.
Powered by how
Discover how one simple question – how? – powers everything we do.
How can we help lower industrial emissions?
How can cutting-edge technology help us deliver energy efficiently?
How can supporting female talent accelerate our industry?
How do we deliver the reliable energy that communities need?