“We want to be a green alternative, Bjørgulf Haukelidsæter Eidesen, founder and CEO of the innovation Horisont Energi, proclaimed last year (geo365: “Både grønn og lønnsom”).
Eidesen has extensive experience from the oil industry and looks back at 13 years in Statoil/Equinor where he was involved in the entire value chain from upstream via midstream to downstream. It is precisely this background that has given him the idea of a company that turns out to be different.
“Development of geological CO2 storage and energy from gas (hydrogen/ammonia) will be our focus. The starting point is a number of smaller, stranded discoveries, which so far have not been profitable to put into production, but for which we see interesting opportunities,” Eidesen said when talking to geo365.no.
Horisont Energi’s business model – producing blue hydrogen and ammonia – may help save the oil and gas industry in the long run.
The company is now planning a carbon storage project in the Barents Sea, called Polaris, with a capacity of 100 million tonnes (twice as much as the annual emission in Norway).
Planning an ammonia plant with Equinor
After having raised some 150 million NOK (appx. 15 MEUR) through a private placement, Horisont Energi was registered Euronext Growth Oslo last week.
Barely a year and a half since its inception, the company has already started its development work for its plans for a large scale, emission free, ammonia plant in Norway’s northernmost county, Finnmark. Horisont has also entered a memorandum of understanding with Equinor for cooperation on the plant development.
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH3. A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent smell.
Horisont Energi sees large potential in the coming low carbon economy, where ammonia is likely to be one of the most important carriers of hydrogen. The EU is investing heavily in hydrogen including ammonia through its “Green Deal” programme and associated initiatives.
SciTechDaily: Technological Breakthrough Allows Seamless Conversion of Ammonia to Green Hydrogen.
The global hydrogen highway
According to Horisont Energi, ammonia is easy to transport in large quantities and exist in liquid phase at atmospheric pressure and -33 degrees Celsius or at room temperature and 10 bar pressure, while hydrogen is more expensive and less effective to transport directly, being in liquid phase at atmospheric pressure and about -250 degrees Celsius.
Hence, ammonia is the simplest and most effective medium for the transport of clean hydrogen, and a fleet of vessels transporting 20 million tonnes of ammonia around the globe annually already exists.
Horisont envisages that ammonia can become the global hydrogen highway.
HALFDAN CARSTENS
