Amogy CEO: Our goal is to cut 10 pct of global GHG emissions by 2040

Since the official launch of Amogy in November 2020, the Brooklyn-based technology startup has had several important milestones. The company is building a zero-emission ammonia-to-power system, which aims to enable the decarbonization of heavy-duty transportation and industries, including shipping.

Amogy’s core technology is a compact chemical reactor that cracks ammonia into hydrogen. The hydrogen is then sent immediately into a fuel cell, forgoing the need for intermediate hydrogen storage. The company said that its proprietary design takes advantage of liquid ammonia’s superior physical characteristics to transport hydrogen far from its source at a lower cost and higher efficiencies than other alternatives. The reactor is combined with a fuel cell as an integrated power system, suitable for use on vessels, inland vehicles, and for stationary power generation applications.

In July 2021, the Amogy team demonstrated the first ammonia-powered drone at a 5kW scale. Nine months later, in May 2022, the company scaled the technology 20x and demonstrated the first-ever zero-emission, ammonia-fueled tractor at 100kW.

“Our goal is to lower 10% of global GHG emissions by 2040, facilitating the decarbonization of hard-to-abate sectors like heavy-duty transportation and shipping,” Seonghoon Woo, the founding CEO of Amogy, told Offshore Energy.

“The event also showcased the efficiency and convenience of the ammonia refueling process, which is comparable to standard diesel refueling, and is much faster and more efficient than charging a battery. The tractor demonstration was a huge milestone for Amogy, proving that we can scale our zero-emission, ammonia-to-power energy system for higher energy-demanding applications.”

Woo added that Amogy has completed three funding rounds to date: $3m Seed, $20 Series-A, and $46m corporate round.

“We are proud to have the support of a number of significant global investors, including Amazon, through its Climate Pledge Fund, the world’s largest oil producer Saudi Aramco, and the South Korean energy conglomerate SK,” he noted.

Most recently, Amogy announced its first global location in Stavanger, Norway. By establishing a presence focused on business development, the company aims to have greater access to the innovative Scandinavian companies leading the shipping industry.

Since the demonstration of the company’s system on a tractor, interest in the system, especially from the shipping community has surged with companies looking to tap into the solution’s potential and transfer it to ships as well.

Speaking on the current maturity level of the technology when it comes to application to ships, Woo said: 

“We are rapidly scaling and maturing our technology for commercial use in larger, oceangoing vessels and are well on our way to introducing the first commercial solution in the next couple of years. We recently received approval in principle (AiP) from Lloyd’s Register, a maritime classification society, for Amogy’s proprietary ammonia-to-power system design, which is an important milestone in certifying its technology solution for commercial use cases in the near future.”

“While we don’t anticipate any critical technical challenges or bottlenecks, the supply chain has always been an issue; however, we still expect to deploy our first commercial system on time in the next couple of years.”

Amogy is optimistic that it will be able to demonstrate its ammonia-to-power system for maritime applications for the first time in a maritime vessel in 2023.

“Yes, due to the maturity of our technology and the pace at which we have been able to scale, we feel confident about our ability to demonstrate our system in a maritime vessel in 2023 — which will be the first-ever ammonia-powered zero-emission vessel demonstration in the world,” the company founder said.

“The company is putting a large effort into bringing its technology as a commercial solution to the maritime industry as early as 2024-2025. We feel optimistic about the timeline.” 

Amogy has been on a major partnership-building campaign joining hands with companies like Amon Maritim and Trafigura.

Speaking on why such partnerships are important, Woo said that it has to do with the complexity of the decarbonization process which requires participation from a number of companies across the value chain, including ship owners, operators, technology providers, and infrastructure builders.

“To achieve our goals, partnering and collaborating with companies such as Amon Maritime, Trafigura, and others is key. Strategic partners in the maritime transportation and fueling space give us access to more market information and the chance to do pilot projects and technology demonstrations with existing fleets,” he noted.

“For example, our partnership with Trafigura will leverage the organization’s knowledge of supply chain economics and regional markets. In addition, Amogy’s technology will be explored for pilot projects and full-scale implementation for Amon Maritime’s ammonia-powered ship new building and bunkering projects. These partnerships are the beginning of promoting large-scale use of clean ammonia.”

Toxicity has been the number one issue when discussing ammonia as the next-generation fuel for ships. The startup believes the shipping industry can learn from other industries and their guidelines on the safe handling of the chemical.

“We are seeing this same practice applied to new commercial sectors where ammonia is being considered as a fuel. This includes shipping, which is already an industry known for stringent guidelines around the fueling and transportation of controlled substances. As Amogy continues to pursue strategic partnerships with groups across the maritime and global shipping industries, we are closely monitoring guidance put forth by regulators and classification societies to ensure our technology is adhering to the latest standards,” Woo explained.

Having in mind that fuel cells are currently the likely solution for short-sea shipping, Amogy believes ammonia as a carrier of hydrogen is expected to be prevalent in this sector. When it comes to deep-sea shipping the jury is still out on whether the market would opt for larger fuel cells or combustion engines once they become available.

“Yes, we envision that the most promising solution for short-sea shipping will likely be using ammonia as a carrier for transporting hydrogen to be combined with a fuel cell,” Woo said.

“There are still uncertainties about the decarbonization solutions for deep-sea shipping. While the industry anticipates having ammonia combustion engines to be ready in the next few years, we will also have to see the development of large-scale fuel cells. The market entry point of each technology and its maturity will be important.”

When it comes to bunkering ammonia, both shore-based and floating solutions are available, and Amogy believes that the decision will just depend on local, state, and federal regulations.

Even when the technology for ships becomes ready, the availability of ammonia has been one of the major issues in the industry. According to Woo, there are positive signs on the market that this will change soon.

“Because the adoption of ammonia as fuel is highly-anticipated in several hard-to-abate industries, ammonia producers have announced increased production capacity, with much of the additional capacity being for the production of blue and green ammonia. Furthermore, oil and gas companies started making large investments for increasing the blue/green ammonia production capacity in parallel, where there exist ~15 MTA post-FID products and additional 75 pre-FID projects in the pipeline,” he noted. 

In conclusion, looking at the current situation in the world regarding energy supply challenges combined with geopolitical uncertainties, and the resulting cost increases of fossil fuels Amogy CEO believes these drivers are likely to help accelerate the energy transition to a hydrogen-based economy.

“The recent geopolitical issues and the resulting increased cost (and its dynamics) of fossil fuels have raised significant concern about conventional energy sources while further highlighting the importance of the fast transition to more sustainable energy. As such, we envision the global transition from hydrocarbons to renewable energy will be accelerated in the following years,” he pointed out.