Mabanaft requests permission to build ammonia import terminal in Hamburg

Energy company Mabanaft has submitted approval documents for the planned construction of an ammonia import terminal in Hamburg, Germany, to the Hamburg Authority of Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA).

The terminal will be built on Mabanaft’s existing tank terminal Blumensand in the Port of Hamburg and will be used to expand the hydrogen supply.

Subject to approval under the German Federal Immission Control Act, one of Mabanaft’s main construction measures includes restructuring the existing Blumensand tank storage facilities, which are wholly owned by Mabanaft’s tank storage division, so that ammonia could also be imported, stored and processed there in the future. This would require demolishing two large petroleum storage tanks.

Philipp Kroepels, Director of New Energy at Mabanaft, stated: “With the planned import terminal in the Port of Hamburg, we have the opportunity to implement yet another piece of the energy transition and bring it to Hamburg. Our import terminal aims to make innovative energy solutions, such as ammonia, available for shipping and for further processing into hydrogen.”

In January 2024, as part of the permitting process, Mabanaft was invited by BUKEA to participate in a scoping meeting with authority representatives and other parties. The purpose was to determine the scope of the voluntary environmental impact assessment and the documents to be submitted to BUKEA.

In the spring and summer of 2023, the company completed an application conference and a HazID analysis to identify potential nautical risks.

Mabanaft announced its intention to build facilities for the import and handling of ammonia on the site of its existing Blumensand tank terminal in the Port of Hamburg in November 2022.

As part of the project, the company will be responsible for, among other things, the modification of the existing jetty, the demolition of two existing large tanks, the construction of a new tank for the storage of ammonia and the installation of pipelines for the transport of ammonia from the jetty to the ammonia storage tank. The facilities are scheduled to come on stream in 2027.

According to the November 2022 announcement, in the Port of Hamburg, Mabanaft’s project partner Air Products plans to build, own and operate the facilities required for the production and handling of hydrogen for which clean ammonia will be the feedstock.