Canada's FuelPositive says each of its modular, container-sized ammonia production units will deliver 100 tonnes of green ammonia a year at costs around US$444/tonne, compared to average gray (fossil-fuel-based) ammonia prices that have averaged around $714.50/tonne this year.

Ammonia prices in North America have been going bananas in 2021, on the back of hurricane-related supply disruptions, COVID-19 and a price hike on natural gas, which is the key – and heavily polluting – input fuel with which nearly all gray ammonia is currently produced. Earlier this month, prices were averaging over $1,250 per tonne, up from closer to $550 a tonne in 2018, and rising faster than any time in recorded history.

Bad news for farmers, obviously, who need it as a fertilizer – but the high prices could help spur innovation in green ammonia production, and that might be good news for those who seek to use ammonia as a green fuel for hard-to-decarbonize sectors like aviation and long-haul shipping.

FuelPositive is a little cagey on exactly how its system works – it's got patents pending – but here's what we do know. It's built into a shipping container, and thus extremely easy to transport. It accepts water, air and electricity as inputs – preferably clean electricity from on-site solar or wind.

The system contains an electrolyzer, which extracts hydrogen from the water, and an extractor that separates pure nitrogen from the air, and these go into what the company calls "a novel, patent-pending ammonia synthesis reactor system" originally developed by Dr. Ibraham Dincer at the University of Ontario. The only output is anhydrous ammonia, in a form suitable for agricultural, industrial or energy storage uses.

Each unit, says FuelPositive, is good for up to 300 kg (661 lb), or 500 L (132 gal) of ammonia a day. That's about 100 metric tonnes per year; about enough, the company claims, for an 1,800-acre (728-ha) farm. Larger operations can add extra modules, while smaller ones can siphon the extra ammonia off to power suitably modified vehicles, grain dryers and generators, or for use as a refrigerant.