HyEx: decarbonizing the Chilean mining industry with renewable ammonia

Описание: Chile currently imports a significant portion of its ammonia requirements for ammonium nitrate production, which is used in the local mining industry as an explosive. Chile is also among the most suitable countries in the world for renewable ammonia production, potentially replacing current imports.

Engie and Enaex are partners in the HyEx project in Antofagasta (Chile), where Engie will produce renewable hydrogen and Enaex will produce green ammonia to feed subsequent production of mining explosives. To discuss the opportunities for renewable ammonia production in the Chile, Pablo Wallach (Vice President Technology, Innovation & Marketing, Enaex) & Asunción Borrás (Head Business Development H2, Engie) were joined in conversation by AEA Technology Manager Kevin Rouwenhorst.

0:00 Welcome and introduction from Kevin
4:34 Introducing Engie's hydrogen portfolio (Asunción Borrás)
8:43 Enaex, and Chile's push for renewable hydrogen (Pablo Wallach)
14:14 HyEx: renewable hydrogen from the Atacama desert (Asunción Borrás)
17:24 HyEx: an opportunity for "green blasting" (Pablo Wallach)
20:26 Funding sources for HyEx, and where is the project up to? (Pablo Wallach)
(a pdf of the speaker's slides can be downloaded here: https://bit.ly/3Z7GzY4)

Q&A
24:15 Remaining obstacles for the off-take of renewable ammonia from HyEx (or Enaex's other renewable project in Cuzco, Peru)?
25:42 What drove Engie's choice of electrolyzer technology for HyEx?
27:45 Any adjustments to mitigate the "inflexibility" of alkaline electrolyzers?
29:30 How does Enaex's Cuzco plant deal (operations-wise) with the input of variable renewable electricity?
31:20 Transferable learnings & key differences between HyEx and Project YURI (Australia)
35:35 Expected production fluctuations (daily, yearly) in a solar-to-ammonia project like HyEx?
37:24 Key criteria for evaluating different ammonia synthesis technologies?
38:30 The general environment in Chile for developing projects like HyEx - any regulatory, legal, approval obstacles?
40:10 Learnings so far from developing renewables projects in Chile (Engie)?
41:40 Hydrogen in the desert - where does the water come from?
43:30 Minimizing emissions from the ammonia production plant
45:00 Ammonia as a fuel for Enaex's mining fleet?
48:30 Ammonia fuel for power generation in Chile?
50:00 If you could apply one learning from the start of project development, what would that be? (Asunción)
51:44 Same question (Pablo)
53:40 Look forward to 2030. What has been realized, and what is still to figure out? (Pablo)
56:05 Same question (Asunción)

57:10 Wrap-up and next month's webinar (India's renewable ammonia opportunity, register here via Zoom: https://bit.ly/3EshU8J)

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