Saudi Arabia Sends Blue Ammonia to Japan in World-First Shipment

Apparently a type of fuel that can be used in power plants with zero carbon emissions.

>The world’s first shipment of blue ammonia is on its way from Saudi Arabia to Japan, where it will be used in power stations to produce electricity without carbon emissions.

>Ammonia can be burned in thermal power stations without releasing carbon emissions. That means it has “the potential to make a significant contribution to an affordable and reliable low-carbon energy future,” according to state-controlled Aramco.

>Blue ammonia is a feedstock for blue hydrogen, a version of the fuel made from fossil fuels with a process that captures and stores C02 emissions. Hydrogen from renewable energy that creates no emissions is known as green hydrogen.

How do you quote? I thought it was with >

"Blue ammonia is a feedstock for blue hydrogen, a version of the fuel made from fossil fuels with a process that captures and stores C02 emissions. Hydrogen from renewable energy that creates no emissions is known as Green hydrogen.Blue/Green hydrogen "can be burned in thermal power stations without releasing carbon emissions."

Non-Paywalled links

https://www.oilandgas360.com/saudi-aramco-sends-first-blue-a...

https://www.ibtimes.com/what-blue-ammonia-saudi-arabia-makes...

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/09/28/saudi-arabia-sends-...

As far as I can make out, "blue ammonia" is a novel marketing term referring to synthesis process in creating NH3 ammonia chemically-identical to existing (now labled "green") processes (presumably Haber-Bosch). Bloomberg's article is exceedingly poor at clarifying this.

IBTimes (referenced by several others) ha the clearest definition I can find:

Ammonia contains about 18% hydrogen by weight, which gives it an advantage over fossil fuels as it releases no carbon dioxide when combusted in a thermal power plant. Blue ammonia is ammonia used as feedstock to make blue hydrogen, which is essentially hydrogen made from fossil fuels through a process that captures and stores the carbon dioxide produced rather than release it into the atmosphere. In the emerging ammonia economy, while blue ammonia is considered a first-generation fuel, green ammonia is considered second-generation.

https://www.ibtimes.com/what-blue-ammonia-saudi-arabia-makes...

Neither Wikipedia nor Google Scholar provide any evident sources.

My read is that KSA have succeeded in converting conventional hydrocarbon fossil fuels to a carbon-neutral form, which would presumably un-strand some portion of the 40 or so gigatons of remaining proved oil reserves, about $2 trillion in assets ($50/bbl assumed, very rough numbers).

As a widespread (transport) fuel ammonia has numerous disadvantages, being both caustic and lethal when inhaled at even modest concentrations.