The green ammonia and green alcohol industry has identified its key development words
On February 18th, Gu Zongqin, the chairman of the China Nitrogen Fertilizer Industry Association, pointed out at the 2025 Green Ammonia and Green Alcohol Industry Development Conference in Shenyang that although the future is arduous and full of difficulties, developing green synthetic ammonia and green methanol industries is an important way for China to achieve the "dual carbon" goals and energy transformation. Actively exploring a development path for green ammonia and green alcohol that suits China's characteristics, seizing the opportunity of the green transformation of traditional synthetic ammonia and methanol, promoting the standardization of the industry, and continuously expanding downstream applications should be the key to the future development of the green ammonia and green alcohol industry.
Gu Zongqin emphasized that currently, the development of the domestic green ammonia and green alcohol industry is characterized by both opportunities and challenges. Firstly, in terms of economy, the cost of hydrogen production from new energy sources has always been the main factor restricting its development. However, in recent years, the price of new energy electricity has dropped from about 1.5 yuan per kilowatt-hour to 0.25 to 0.3 yuan per kilowatt-hour. The latest green electricity price of a certain project in Xinjiang has also decreased to 0.164 yuan per kilowatt-hour, approaching 0.15 yuan per kilowatt-hour. Moreover, there is still room for the price of new energy electricity to drop in the future. The "dawn" of new energy production of green ammonia and green alcohol has emerged.
Secondly, in terms of technology, hydrogen production from renewable energy sources often has intermittent and fluctuating issues, which cannot meet the continuous and large-scale hydrogen demand of chemical plants. Therefore, corresponding hydrogen storage, energy storage or peak shaving planning for the power grid is required.
Secondly, in the aspect of methanol production from biomass, special attention should also be paid to the supply of raw materials and the level of gasification technology. When enterprises are laying out biomass-to-methanol projects, they must configure an appropriate scale of facilities and pay attention to the long-term stable supply of biomass raw materials. They must not change the raw material route halfway through the project.
When it comes to the future of the green ammonia and green alcohol industry, Gu Zongqin believes that first, it is necessary to actively explore an industrial development path that suits China's characteristics. This issue involves how to define "green". Most of the currently planned or under-construction green ammonia and green alcohol projects utilize renewable energy as raw materials and aim to meet the requirements of the European Union. In light of the actual resource and energy characteristics of our country and the strategic requirements for implementing energy transformation, while attempting to rely entirely on renewable energy to prepare synthetic ammonia and methanol, more attention should be paid to the coupled development of renewable energy and the traditional synthetic ammonia and methanol industries. For instance, hydrogen production from renewable energy can partially replace hydrogen production from coal or natural gas, or industrial capture of CO₂ can be combined with hydrogen production from renewable energy or by-product hydrogen to produce methanol, etc. For instance, Yigao Company in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, has obtained the EU green alcohol product certification by producing methanol from waste tires.
Second, we must seize the rare opportunity for the green transformation and development of the traditional ammonia synthesis and methanol industries. Firstly, in terms of economy and competitiveness, the rapid development of the new energy industry has led to a decline in electricity costs, providing a good opportunity for traditional ammonia synthesis and methanol enterprises to achieve coupled development with new energy. Secondly, in terms of carbon reduction, the green transformation of the synthetic ammonia and methanol industries is extremely urgent. Thirdly, at the policy level, the state has respectively introduced more scientific and reasonable management measures for distributed photovoltaic power generation and new energy projects, which is conducive to enterprises' layout of new energy power generation projects.
Third, efforts should be made to promote the standardization construction of the green ammonia and green alcohol industry. The development of the green ammonia and green alcohol industry is still in its infancy. Currently, the standards it follows mainly rely on the laws and standards of the European Union. China still needs to do a lot of work in formulating standards for the green ammonia and green alcohol industry. Last year, the Nitrogen Fertilizer Association organized the formulation of two group standards, namely the "Grading Standard for Green Synthetic Ammonia" and the "Grading Standard for Green Methanol". This year, the Nitrogen Fertilizer Association will focus on promoting the national standard "Methods and Requirements for Quantifying the Carbon Footprint of Greenhouse Gas Products" for synthetic ammonia and urea, as well as the industry standard "Green Synthetic Ammonia" initiated by the National Energy Administration.
Fourth, we should continuously expand the scope of downstream applications. In the energy sector, green ammonia and green alcohol can be used for co-firing in boilers (kilns), as fuel for vehicles and ships, and in fuel cells, etc. In addition, efforts should be made to expand the application of green ammonia and green alcohol in the field of chemical raw materials. We should actively explore the use of green ammonia and green alcohol as chemical raw materials to produce green and low-carbon chemical products and agricultural products, so as to reduce carbon emissions in industries and agriculture.