The world’s first commercial shipment of certified clean blue ammonia has arrived in South Korea from Saudi Arabia, this marks a large step in Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy efforts
A vessel carrying the 25,000 metric tons of cargo docked in Ulsan, having left the Kingdom’s King Fahad Industrial Port at Jubail last month.
The shipment was sent by SABIC Agri-Nutrients and Saudi Aramco, and representatives of the companies joined with executives from South Korea’s Lotte Fine Chemicals to witness the historic arrival.
This comes as earlier this year, SABIC AN and Aramco obtained the world’s first independent certification of clean blue ammonia and clean blue hydrogen production from TÜV Rheinland, a leading independent testing, inspection and certification agency based in Germany.
The shipment of clean ammonia to South Korea is the first to have this certification and a major milestone in efforts to develop clean energy solutions, advancing Saudi Arabia’s capabilities in exporting hydrogen and ammonia.
Saudi Arabia’s renewable energy goals are not new, Saudi has previously said that it is committed to becoming carbon neutral and that it seeks to derive 50% of its electricity from renewables by 2030.
The 50% renewables goal will require a serious amount of investment. According to the International Energy Agency, less than 0.05% of its electricity supply came from renewable energy in 2018 — its latest available figures.
About 42% of the kingdom’s power was produced from oil that year, making it the world’s largest consumer of oil for electricity production, with the remaining 57.8% of electricity derived from natural gas.
Image Credit: Akhilesh Sharma on Unsplash
