UAE’s ‘low carbon’ blue ammonia debunked by experts

‘When I first started hearing about blue hydrogen, let alone blue ammonia, it seemed like a scam, quite frankly,’ revealed Rober Howarth, a professor of Ecology at Cornell. After delving further into the subject, he concluded: ‘In some ways, it is.’

Contrary to the picture being painted by UAE figureheads, a closer look at the ecological footprint of blue ammonia (beyond CO2) reveals that its production often emits three times the emission toll of diesel, and two-and-a-half times more than coal or natural gas.

This is primarily due to methane leakage during the production of ammonia and is compounded by inefficiencies in converting hydrogen into ammonia and back. Beyond this, UAE oil giant ADNOC openly uses its sequestered CO2 for enhanced oil recovery (EOR).

As we discussed just last week, this involves injecting oil wells with CO2 to thin the supply’s viscosity and ultimately pump more oil. While preferable to drilling somewhere else entirely, this process is still anything but green.

Technically, Sultan Al Jaber is within his rights to call blue ammonia a ‘low carbon’ product, but the caveat is huge. Methane is responsible for one-third of global warming that has occurred since 1900, and though rarely mentioned in climate assessments, it continues to play a pivotal role.

Despite being preferable to regular ammonia production in terms of CO2, Howarth is concerned that blue ammonia represents a ‘very dangerous approach’ to decarbonisation governance.

Nonetheless, we fully expect the hosts of COP28 to peddle the ‘solution’ relentlessly over the coming days and weeks. Sigh.