US Farmers Need Green Ammonia, And China Has It

Support CleanTechnica’s work through a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Whelp, there he goes again. Having already battered farmers with tariffs, labor shortages, and cuts to federal assistance that benefit farmers and their communities, US President Donald Trump’s war in Iran is hitting them with higher fuel costs. too. As a ripple effect, the war is also raising the cost of fertilizer. A solution is emerging in the form of green ammonia, though it will not materialize in time to save at-risk farms from financial ruin — or conversion to real estate development — all throughout Trump’s second term in office..

The Green Ammonia Path To Sustainable Agriculture

CleanTechnica’s Carolyn Fortuna makes the case for local food cultivation in a new piece titled, “It’s Time for an Authentic Golden Age of Agriculture.” One key element involves reducing, if not eliminating, the use of harmful synthetic fertilizers and other chemical inputs in favor of regenerative practices that draw on indigenous knowledge and modern science that focuses on soil health.

Regenerative agriculture shares some space with the emerging field of agrivoltaics, which optimizes food production and solar energy on the same land while improving soil health and biodiversity, and reducing water consumption (see lots more agrivoltaic background here).

Pushing the global agriculture industry onto a more sustainable pathway will take decades of change, though. In the meantime, green ammonia provides an opportunity to remove fossil energy from the fertilizer supply chain. Conventional ammonia fertilizer is made from hydrogen and nitrogen, with the hydrogen typically sourced from natural gas. Green ammonia deploys air-sourced nitrogen with green hydrogen, which is pushed from water by electrolysis systems that run on renewable energy.

Trump Stomps All Over The Green Ammonia Dream

In an epic case of bad timing, last year President Trump took a chopper to the Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, a new, $7 billion federal funding program aimed at expanding and diversifying the US hydrogen supply chain. The program accommodated fossil-sourced hydrogen with carbon capture in some parts of the US, but overall the emphasis was on water electrolysis as well as biomass and other renewable resources.

Concurrently, last summer Agriculture Secretary Susan Rollins announced that her agency would no longer provide farmers with low-cost loans and loan guarantees to install wind turbines or solar arrays on their property, not even small setups aimed at reducing the cost of grain drying and other on-site operations. New state-based solar programs (here’s an example) can help make up the difference, but in the meantime the damage is done.

So much for on-site green ammonia fertilizer production. Back in 2020, the US Department of Energy began exploring the idea of encouraging farmers to adopt small scale, distributed wind turbines that would keep pushing out clean kilowatts overnight to run on-site electrolysers. Farmers could use water electrolysis to produce their own hydrogen for fuel or fertilizer, or they could sell the excess into local markets.

Here Comes China With All Your Green Ammonia

The idea of on-site green ammonia fertilizer production seemed a little futuristic at the time, but then again windmills were once a fixture on farms all over the US. In that context, farm-located wind turbines that generate electricity for the use of farmers is not particularly out of character.

In fact, according to a timeline posted by the Department of Energy, the US farmers of the past used windmills to run small-scale generators in addition to mechanical uses like pumping water or grinding grain. If we really want to “Make America Great Again…”

Oh, never mind all that. If US farmers are barred from installing their own wind turbines and solar arrays, the next-best pathway for green ammonia fertilizer involves establishing a network of local ammonia producers among farming cooperatives. Farmers have been sharing electricity resources and other agriculture infrastructure for generations. A cooperative, local ammonia fertilizer venture fits neatly into that slot.

The startup TalusAg is among the private sector stakeholders seeking to kickstart a local green ammonia fertilizer production industry in the US. If all goes according to plan, local farmers will benefit from lower costs and new  opportunities to compete in global carbon markets…eventually.

In the meantime, China has already picked up the green hydrogen ball and the green ammonia ball, too. While the green hydrogen industry stumbled in the US and other parts of the world, China leveraged its massive wind and solar assets in Inner Mongolia to produce green hydrogen and ammonia at scale, and now the chickens have come home to roost.

The Green Hydrogen Horses Have Left The Barn

On February 26, the Chinese firm Envision announced the first commercial shipment of green ammonia from its sprawling facility in the Mongolian city of Chifeng to the leading chemicals firm LOTTE Fine Chemical in South Korea.

“This shipment marks the world’s first end-to-end commercial delivery of green ammonia, encompassing the entire value chain from renewable hydrogen synthesis to international maritime logistics,” Envision emphasized in a press statement.

“The cargo originates from Envision’s Chifeng facility, recognized as the world’s largest green hydrogen-ammonia production base. The park operates on the world’s most advanced 100% renewable power system, leveraging physical AI to intelligently orchestrate wind and solar energy into a stable supply for hydrogen and ammonia synthesis,” Envision elaborated.

LOTTE CEO Seung Won Chung also chipped in his two cents. “This milestone holds historic significance as the starting point for establishing the green hydrogen and ammonia value chain — considered a leading solution for the transition to carbon-free energy in response to the climate crisis,” Chung said.

Of note, LOTTE began life as a fertilizer producer in 1964. The company launched its ammonia business in 1984 and it has been growing ever since. The idea of pivoting into green ammonia began to take force in LOTTE’s 2021 sustainability report.

The initial green ammonia delivery is all the more significant because LOTTE bills itself as “the largest ammonia distributor in Northeast Asia, supplying two-thirds of domestic ammonia demand.”

“With the infrastructure further bolstered by growing ties with various partners at home and abroad as well as by synergetic collaborations with other LOTTE Group affiliates, LFC is gaining competitiveness in all ammonia industry value chains,” the company adds.

Beyond fertilizer, ammonia has many uses in the chemical industry. Ammonia can be deployed as a fuel, too, and it can serve as a transportation medium for green hydrogen.

Meanwhile, over here in the US…oh, never mind! If you have any thoughts about that, drop a note in the comment thread. Better yet, find your representatives in Congress and let them know what you think.

Photo: China takes another step towards demonstrating a viable global market for green ammonia, produced from green hydrogen and renewable energy (cropped, courtesy of Envision via prnewswire.com).