The fundamental difference is that the Grannus process uses a Partial Oxidation (POx) reaction where natural gas is combined with a ‘lean’ supply of oxygen which prevents full combustion. In this method, 100% of the process plant’s natural gas input is used as feedstock in the production of syngas (hydrogen and CO) via an exothermic reaction. Further, because the process does not need to burn natural gas as fuel to produce heat, Grannus plants have no emission stack – hence near zero SOX and NOX emissions. This yields clear benefits when compared to an SMR process which burns as much as 20% of total natural gas flow – with the resulting air emissions – to make the heat required to drive the endothermic reforming reaction. These differences result in SMRs producing much greater air pollution. Other advantages of a Grannus Process plant are faster restarts in the event of a shutdown, lower maintenance costs (no reformer catalysts to replace), and higher average uptime.
The ratio of hydrogen to ammonia is around 5.64X where a 100 metric tonne/day hydrogen plant would produce around 564 tonne/day of ammonia. The hydrogen product can be used for multiple purposes with a portion being available for the hydrogen mobility market and the balance used to produce ammonia.
Grannus Process plants produce valuable beverage grade CO2 that can be sold to bottlers, used in the production of dry ice, or for medical services. Depending on project location, another option is geologic sequestration. The latter option enables the production of “blue” ammonia with a very low carbon footprint. Additionally, if a project utilizes some renewable natural gas as feedstock, it enables the production of hydrogen/ammonia with a carbon footprint that reaches zero or even negative levels.
The capital cost of a Grannus plant is equivalent to a traditional “gray” SMR based design on an installed price per ton basis. Operating costs are the same, or better, depending on electricity costs.
Multiple Tier 1 equipment suppliers exist for all major pieces of plant equipment. Grannus Process plants can achieve a financeable EPC contract from any qualified EPC.
CI – Carbon Intensity and LCFS – Low Carbon Fuel Standard are acronyms related to CO2. The lower the CI score, the lower the carbon ‘footprint’ of the produced hydrogen. This scoring affects pricing of mobility hydrogen, and potentially ammonia in the future, as well as availability of tax credits (e.g., 45Q/45V) or other government incentive programs (e.g., LCFS) that may be available for low carbon energy producers.
World food production depends on fertilizer; specifically, Nitrogen (N), Phosphorous (P), and Potassium (K), or NPK. The P and the K are mined from the ground. The N is manufactured in massive quantities in large plants worldwide. The mother N product they make is ammonia fertilizer, from which a myriad of additional downstream fertilizer products can be produced. The widespread application of these nitrogen fertilizer products doubles food crop production, which means that around half of global food production is a result of this single commodity. Looking forward, the market for ammonia is expanding into uses as fuel (e.g., container and land shipping), power generation (e.g., turbines that uses ammonia instead of natural gas) as well as being used as an easier way to ship clean hydrogen internationally.
Fundamentally, ammonia is made from nitrogen atoms harvested from the air, which are combined with hydrogen atoms, which can be harvested from water, natural gas, or other sources. Traditional reformer-based production of N is cost effective, but pollution heavy. Current electrolyzer-based production is climate friendly, but very expensive and the renewable power it demands requires substantial amounts of land and raw materials. What is needed is a cost-effective and climate friendly alternative with a small land requirement. Grannus Process plants fit this need.
There is a major effort being undertaken to reduce the climate impact of the global shipping industry. One key area of innovation in this space is the replacement of the engines that drive container ships with new engines that utilize ammonia as fuel instead of highly polluting bunker fuel (which is the standard today). If this and other similar efforts succeed, the already large global market for ammonia is expected to triple by 2050. Grannus Process plants are uniquely positioned to help meet this demand given their excellent economic and environmental advantages.
The front end of an ammonia fertilizer plant produces hydrogen (which is then combined with nitrogen to make ammonia). This means that ammonia fertilizer plants are well positioned to support the nascent mobility hydrogen markets. California is a world leader in this space with major efforts being undertaken to support hydrogen fuel cell cars, including the addition of numerous filling stations for those cars, as well as sufficient clean hydrogen manufacturing in the state to fuel them. Grannus is uniquely positioned to help support the supply of hydrogen for mobility both in California and beyond.
Yes, assuming transportation is considered. Grannus’ strategy is to locate its plants near the end user thereby reducing transportation cost and risk. While a 2,000 ton per day ammonia plant will benefit from production cost scale economies relative to any 500 tonne/day plant –transporting ammonia the additional distances needed to support a larger plant erodes production cost advantage from size, in most cases.
From construction start to commercial operation is 18-24 months based on site specific requirements. This shortened construction cycle is achieved through leveraging common engineering, modular design with off-site fabrication, and contractual relationships with key equipment suppliers. Air permitting is also shortened, or even eliminated, due to having no emissions stack and extremely low levels of criteria pollutants.
Grannus builds, owns and operates plants based on its process design. Grannus will also co-develop and/or license its process design to 3rd party developers or companies who wish to pursue independent projects.