Dennis Zehner in Lawrenceville, Illinois has a question about the new push for semiconductor factories:
“Recently we have seen much discussion on the urgency to produce semiconductor chips in this country so that much of our equipment requiring those chips will be more readily available. I have read that one of the most important scientific discoveries of the twentieth century is the process of making anhydrous ammonia. Wouldn’t it make sense for some effort to encourage more domestic production of NH3? It would appear that this is a product that is just as important as microchips to keep our food supply secure.”
Thanks for the question, and the answer looks like good news: we’re doing both. The 2022 CHIPS Act does exactly what the name says – provides $270B for semiconductor manufacturing facilities, like much publicized huge Ohio Intel plant.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, which is really a renewable energy act, provides about $370B for all kinds of projects that help energy and manufacturing processes reduce carbon emissions. This includes funding for cleaner ammonia plants.
Ammonia is a remarkably simple product with a molecule made of one nitrogen atom and three hydrogen atoms. The nitrogen is plentiful and free – about 80% of air is nitrogen and easily isolated. The hydrogen has been easy to come by as well, just knock a couple of atoms off methane, CH4, which we call natural gas.
The issue has been what happens to the remaining gases, CO and CO2?
New processes have been developed to manufacture ammonia with much lower or no carbon emissions. Blue ammonia uses the traditional process but captures the CO2 byproduct and sequesters it underground. Green ammonia uses a carbon-free hydrogen source like electrolysis of water - passing an electrical current through H2O, yielding hydrogen and oxygen.
Since passage of the IRA several blue and a few green ammonia plants have been announced. Agriculture uses about 80% of all ammonia, so fertilizer producers are spearheading this.
I hope this is where we are heading, but the US is now noted for its inability to not get things built on time, on budget, or at all, largely due to regulations and local opposition.
