Topsoe Selected as Ammonia Technology licensor for ACWA’s Yanbu Green Hydrogen Project in Saudi Arabia

Topsoe, a global provider of advanced technologies for the energy transition, has been selected as the ammonia technology licensor for ACWA Power’s Yanbu Green Hydrogen Project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Under the agreement, Topsoe will deliver its dynamic ammonia technology, enabling the conversion of green hydrogen produced at the Yanbu facility into green ammonia. In addition to licensing, Topsoe will also supply engineering services, proprietary equipment and catalysts to Sinopec and Tecnicas Reunidas, which have jointly secured the project’s front-end engineering design (FEED) contract.

The collaboration strengthens the strategic partnership between Topsoe and ACWA and supports the large-scale production of green ammonia, a key vector for decarbonising energy-intensive industries and long-distance transportation.

Yassir Ghiyati, chief commercial officer at Topsoe, said the project represents a significant step in scaling up decarbonisation solutions. “Green ammonia plays a critical role in reducing emissions from energy-intensive industries and long-distance transportation. We need to deploy decarbonisation solutions on a global scale, and ACWA’s project will deliver a strong contribution,” he said.

Driss Berraho, executive vice-president of business development for green hydrogen at ACWA, said the partnership will support Saudi Arabia’s ambitions to become a global leader in the green hydrogen economy. “Our collaboration with Topsoe at the Yanbu project will convert competitive renewable energy into green hydrogen-based fuels, including green ammonia, at industrial scale. This development will strengthen hydrogen corridors linking renewable resources with global demand centres and contribute to the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 industrial transformation,” he said.

The Yanbu Green Ammonia Project is being developed as a GW-scale green hydrogen facility, with Topsoe’s technology enabling the conversion of hydrogen into ammonia. The licensing agreement covers the first mega-scale green ammonia units at Yanbu, each with a combined production capacity of 2,700 metric tonnes per day (MTPD), with potential replication across subsequent units.

Topsoe’s dynamic ammonia technology allows ammonia production to adapt to fluctuations in renewable power supply, enabling bidirectional ramping of production at a rate of at least 3% per minute. The technology significantly reduces capital and operating expenditure by minimising or eliminating the need for hydrogen storage systems, while enabling renewable electricity to be stored in the form of zero-carbon chemical energy.

Green ammonia is expected to play a critical role in the global transition towards net-zero emissions, as it can be transported using existing infrastructure and used as a fuel, hydrogen carrier, and decarbonisation solution for sectors such as steel and cement manufacturing.