ReMo Energy ($5M Seed funding for distributed green ammonia production to decarbonize agriculture)

ReMo Energy, an American cleantech startup founded in 2020, develops distributed ammonia production plants that can integrate with renewable energy sources to produce green hydrogen via water electrolysis for ammonia synthesis. ReMo Energy’s small-scale, modular plant can produce 100-400 metric tons of ammonia per day using lower-cost reactors and components than traditional ammonia plant architectures. The company is integrating ammonia synthesis with the production of downstream nitrogen fertilizers to decarbonize agriculture.

Challenges: green ammonia

Ammonia (NH₃) is a crucial compound for agriculture. In 2021, the global production of ammonia was 185 million metric tons, with over 80% being used for fertilizer production. As the global population increases, so does the demand for ammonia.

The primary method of ammonia production is the Haber-Bosch process, which converts pure hydrogen (H₂) and nitrogen (N₂) into ammonia. World-scale ammonia synthesis plants can produce up to 5,000 metric tons per day. They are usually situated in remote areas with cheap natural gas. The produced ammonia is transported considerable distances to customers and contributes to carbon emissions.

The Haber-Bosch process for ammonia synthesis requires high temperature and pressure (above 450 ºC and 200 bar, respectively), which are intentionally engineered for the iron-based catalysts to attain significant yields of ammonia. The energy-intensive nature of the process results in the consumption of about 2% of worldwide fossil fuels and annual emission over 420 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂). Production of ammonia contributes to 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The traditional ammonia production process described above is not easily adapted and deployed for the production of green ammonia using green hydrogen feed via water electrolysis powered by renewable electricity of solar panels and wind turbines. The intermittent nature of solar and wind energy makes the rate of ammonia production not be able to be turned up and down because of the compressors required to achieve the high operating pressures.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop distributed, small-scale ammonia production plants that can be integrated with renewable energy sources to convert N₂ and green hydrogen into NH₃.

ReMo Energy Technology

ReMo Energy has developed a modular, distributed green ammonia production system that integrates with solar panels and wind turbines to generate green hydrogen (H₂) feed via water electrolysis for ammonia production at a low pressure of 80 bar. The low-pressure ammonia synthesis can match the delivery hydrogen pressure of an electrolyzer, thus eliminating the need for an expensive compressor. Furthermore, the low-pressure operation allows the development of a simple and low-cost ammonia synthesis reactor featuring a hot shell design, inexpensive heat exchange materials, and low-pressure oriented catalysts. ReMo Energy’s ammonia synthesis system can produce 100-400 metric tons per day.

ReMo Energy ammonia

The diagram below illustrates ReMo Energy’s ammonia production system.