Ammonia Awareness

One thing that I have come to realize is that most people just do not "get it". It takes someone who has worked with or had a need for NH3 that even begins to understand the big picture. The reason that ammonia has not had much consideration is because so few people are involved in the industry. Of those that do have an understanding even fewer have ever considered the global and long term issues surrounding NH3 and fewer yet comprehend its use as energy storage an alternative fuel.

Ammonia production and use is plainly misunderstood. Why? Because the industry is so mature. 100 years ago it was an issue. 100 years ago we did not know the method of manufacturing process of creating nitrogen fertilizers from air and fossil fuel. But 100 years ago the world was much more agriculturally based and it was at a brink. Wars were being waged over the few remaining natural sources of ammonia fertilizer and predictions were being made that the world would no longer be able to feed itself. Ammonia synthesis changed all of that.

Today ammonia fertilizer is one of those out of site, out of mind, it works so don't mess with kind of things. But it remains a critical part of everyday life. It is something that everyone on this planet cannot live with out. If we could strip all of the issues a side, other than water, the price and availability of NH3 is the biggest single item that determines the basic quality of life around the world. Truth be told we really could live without gasoline and I admit it would not be to comfortable but we absolutely can not live without ammonia fertilizer. If we had to rely on only natural bio ammonia crop yields would be cut in half and so would the worlds population. Not a pretty thought.

Now we have not lost the recipe to ammonia synthesis and we will probably be able to produce ammonia from fossil fuel for quite sometime but at what price? With these higher prices it will not be the portion of the world that can afford the increased costs associated with fossil fuel NH3 that will suffer. To many people it will be a just a switch at the grocery store, a cut back in something not as important as food and we will call it inflation. But to people in India, China or Africa who cannot afford the increase it is something totally different. We wealthy nations did not steal the food from their plate we took the fertilizer from their field. Not being able to afford the increased cost of fertilizer may just well be the next worldwide humanitarian issue. And how many people get it? About the same number who understand ammonia as fuel or energy storage.... very few. This problem already is happening. There will be more crop yields cut because of the cost and availability of ammonia fertilizer. As it has been said many times: Well-fed people are a peaceful people. Hunger is what wars are made of.

The big stir about bio fuels taking food from people’s plates it is not the issue. To me it may not be the best long-term solution but it is better than the alternative of imported fuels. The field corn going into ethanol production doesn't feed people, only livestock. The distiller’s grain byproduct does not go to waste and in most cases is a better livestock feed coming out of an ethanol plant than the field corn going in. The real underlying issue here? Petroleum based fertilizers. Increased demand for bio fuel is demanding more production and more production is demanding more fertilization and more fertilization means more imported petroleum based ammonia fertilizer. A world of tightening fossil fuel supplies is a world of tightening fertilizer supply and so on and so on the consequences of which all mean the same thing.

These consequences are why we are confident that we are on the right path. The underlying issues that most people are totally unaware of are our incentive to find the ways to efficiently produce sustainable ammonia fertilizer so that around the world fertilizers are not a luxury to those that can only afford it. Our goals are to produce ammonia fertilizers locally from local energy sources. Close to the fields, the people and livestock. That’s Freedom Fertilizer

Iowa Corn Board Grant Recieved

News Release

Sustainable Ammonia Fertilizer Enterprises, LLC Announces Grant Award

April 6, 2009, Spirit Lake, IA

On March 20, 2009, Sustainable Ammonia Fertilizer Enterprises, Llc. (S.A.F.E.) and its farmer steering committee were notified that it is the recipient of a matching grant awarded by the Iowa Corn Promotion Board. “S.A.F.E. and Iowa Corn is pleased to announce the awarding of this grant and we are honored to accept it. It will allow us to further our research into the production of Nitrogen fertilizer made from a renewable energy source, that being wind” said Steve Gruhn of Spirit Lake, IA S.A.F.E.’s founder. “We are gaining significant momentum and our timing for this venture could not be better” he continued.

“Iowa Corn is proud to offer grants to get businesses that can help the corn industry, off the ground,” said Jerry Main, Chairman of the Iowa Corn Industrial Usage and U.S. Production Committee. “We have had many successful ventures that started with the help of a grant from Iowa Corn.”

Mark Rosenbury of Des Moines, IA, S.A.F.E. Llc. President added: “We are pleased to be associated with the Iowa Corn Promotion Board and their innovative initiatives to promote the growing and diverse uses for corn in Iowa, the United States and globally.”

“This grant will allow us to continue our research to identify the best production methods and technologies available for renewable and sustainable ammonia,” said Don Vanderbrook, S.A.F.E. Llc. Program Director.

S.A.F.E., LLC, headquartered in Spirit Lake, IA, is engaged in the development of renewable based anhydrous ammonia fertilizer production technology to support the increased demand for bio fuels and conventional use crops. S.A.F.E. Llc. has recently been awarded grants from the Iowa Farm Bureau and the U.S.D.A. Value Added program as well. These grants are being utilized to further S.A.F.E.’s investigation and planning for the goal of producing Sustainable Anhydrous Ammonia Fertilizer from electrical energy created by the areas bountiful wind resources.

---Freedom Fertilizer - Spirit lake, Iowa --- The Center of Green Energy Production

A new proposed transmission grid puts Spirit Lake, Iowa and Freedom Fertilizers Home at the center of the proposal. If you are unfamiliar with our location we are located in NW Iowa on the Iowa/Minnesota State line. Basically at the Center of the map just south of the proposed 4way power grid junction at Lakefield, MN. Add in the numerous biofuel plants, wind farms, ammonia storage and ammonia pipelines we have with in a 60 mile radius.

We are Green Ground Zero


Michigan Company Proposes Network Of Electric Transmission Lines Across The Region

(Sioux Falls, S.D.)-- A Michigan company is working on plans for a network of transmission lines across the midwest that could carry electricity from wind turbines to millions of homes.

The project by ITC Holdings Corporation would cost in the neighborhood of 12 billion dollars and include an electric grid in the dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinoin and Indiana.

It would have the capacity to carry electricity to 3.6 million homes to Chicago and points east.

One of the lines in the grid would connect a substation near Lakefield, Minnesota with one near Sac City. The line would primarily follow Highway 71 through northwest Iowa.

Officials say it would take 10 or years to build the network of transmission lines.

A reply to the U of M Study - Ethanol; no better than gasoline

And The Answer Is???............. Sustainable NH3 Fertilizer

So we want and need greener biofuels???? How do we do it? There is one simple answer... and its in the wind all around us. I bet you did not know that the largest share of fossil fuel used in growing an acre of corn is not for tractors and combines, its for the nitrogen fertilizer. More carbon based petroleum goes into the production of the 150 plus lbs of N fertilizer that is needed to maintain todays corn yields than all of the fuel that it takes to till,plant,harvest and deliver that acre to market. And to make matters worse, currently we are importing more NH3 ammonia into this country than oil on a percentage base. Over 70% of the nitrogen fertilizer used in this country is imported and it is coming from the same areas of turmoil around the world as oil. This is not just an issue about green biofuel or even energy independence. This is really about food security. So lets not debate all the bad about ethanol. The truth is we have invested billions of dollars into an American product that creates American jobs and keeps American dollars in the American economy. And just maybe we should find way to make these green fuels greener. Isn't that what American innovation is all about. So rather than look at todays doom and gloom,more closing and more layoffs. We need to forget about Wall Streets blind leading the blind. And we should believe and support the new biofuel industry we already have and figure out how to make it better with innovation. Isn't that the American way and that is what will cure this economy. So what is our one simple answer?.... Sustainable nitrogen fertilizer produced from the Upper Midwest's bountiful wind resources.An innovative answer to make biofuels greener, America energy independent and the future of American Agriculture 100% sustainable

www.freedomfertilizer.com

Remarks of President Barack Obama Weekly Address Saturday, January 24th, 2009

President Obamas first weekly address calls for unprecedented action to increase jobs and create green energy. What he is calling for puts our Freedom Fertilizer project squarely in the bullseye for what this administration wants to do to strengthen the economy, create jobs and jump start green energy. Mr Obamas goals strengthens our conviction that we are on the right path and underscores our need for diligence to get the Freedom Fertilizer story told.

Here is an overview of his comments.

We begin this year and this Administration in the midst of an unprecedented crisis that calls for unprecedented action. Just this week, we saw more people file for unemployment than at any time in the last twenty-six years, and experts agree that if nothing is done, the unemployment rate could reach double digits. Our economy could fall $1 trillion short of its full capacity, which translates into more than $12,000 in lost income for a family of four. And we could lose a generation of potential, as more young Americans are forced to forgo college dreams or the chance to train for the jobs of the future.

In short, if we do not act boldly and swiftly, a bad situation could become dramatically worse.

That is why I have proposed an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan to immediately jumpstart job creation as well as long-term economic growth. I am pleased to say that both parties in Congress are already hard at work on this plan, and I hope to sign it into law in less than a month.

It’s a plan that will save or create three to four million jobs over the next few years, and one that recognizes both the paradox and the promise of this moment - the fact that there are millions of Americans trying to find work even as, all around the country, there’s so much work to be done. That’s why this is not just a short-term program to boost employment. It’s one that will invest in our most important priorities like energy and education; health care and a new infrastructure that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st century.

Today I’d like to talk specifically about the progress we expect to make in each of these areas.

To accelerate the creation of a clean energy economy, we will double our capacity to generate alternative sources of energy like wind, solar, and biofuels over the next three years. We’ll begin to build a new electricity grid that lay down more than 3,000 miles of transmission lines to convey this new energy from coast to coast.

We’ll save taxpayers $2 billion a year by making 75% of federal buildings more energy efficient, and save the average working family $350 on their energy bills by weatherizing 2.5 million homes.

MAJOR GOALS:
•
Doubles renewable energy generating capacity over three years. It took 30 years to reach current levels of renewable energy production. This plan will double that level over the next three years – enough to power 6 million American homes.
•
Undertakes the largest weatherization program in history, modernizing 75% of federal buildings and two million homes.
•
Computerizes every American’s health record in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions of dollars in health care costs.
•
Launches the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade 10,000 schools and improve learning environments for approximately 5 million children.
•
Enacts the largest investment increase in our nation’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s.

Spurring a Clean Energy Economy
•
Doubling renewable energy generating capacity over three years. It took 30 years for our nation to reach its current level of renewable generating capacity – the recovery and reinvestment plan will double that level over the next three years. That increase in capacity is enough to power 6 million American homes.
•
Jump-starting the transformation to a bigger, better, smarter grid. The upfront investments and reforms in modernizing our nation’s electricity grid will result in more than 3,000 miles of new or modernized transmission lines and 40 million “Smart Meters” in American homes.
•
Weatherizing at least two million homes to save low-income families on average $350 per year and modernizing more than 75% of federal building space, saving taxpayers $2 billion per year in lower federal energy bills. Today, the federal government is the world’s largest consumer of energy. The recovery and reinvestment plan will make an historic investment in upgrading the federal building stock that will save taxpayer dollars and help catalyze a green building industry.
•
Launching a Clean Energy Finance Initiative to leverage $100 billion in private sector clean energy investments over three years. The finance authority will provide loan guarantees and other financial support to help ease credit constraints for renewable energy investors and catalyze new private sector investment over the next three years.

The Alchemy of Air: By Author Thomas Hager

A Jewish Genius, A Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler

A recently published book that documents the history and importants of NH3

Fixed nitrogen (which is immediately usable to plants) is essential in agriculture. Its rarity, as science writer Hager (The Demon Under the Microscope) shows, dramatically shaped the world and its politics. But by 1905, as Hager details, German chemist Fritz Haber discovered a process for transforming abundant air-borne nitrogen into ammonia, and Carl Bosch's ingenious engineering scaled Haber's benchtop chemistry into industrial processes to make fertilizer. But Hager's story is not only one of triumph, of how Haber and Bosch invented a way to turn air into bread, earning a Nobel Prize and saving millions from starvation. This is also a story of irony and tragedy. First, life-saving nitrogen is also the main ingredient in explosives, and Hager cogently summarizes the Haber-Bosch process's critical role in both world wars. In addition, Hager illustrates Haber's extreme German patriotism and desperate wish to assimilate; shattered by the rise of Hitler, he became an outcast, abandoned even by his onetime colleague Bosch. It's unfortunate that Hager ends his fine book with only a brief look at the deleterious role of nitrogen on the environment.

A National Renewable Ammonia Architecture

A National Renewable Ammonia Architecture

This paper describes the current manufacture and uses of ammonia as well as describing a path forward to a fully renewable future for this vital fertilizer ingredient. The primary author and editor is Neal Rauhauser, with assistance in its development rendered by Dave Bradley, Orignal founders of Freedom Fertilizer along with input from Bryan Lutter, and Larry Bruce.

Ammonia Production Methods Today

It can be argued that ammonia is perhaps the most critical manmade substance to the existence of human society. Without continuing agricultural growth, the world's expanding population faces famine and the concomitant breakdown of civil society. The expansion of population and modern society is based on fertilizer driven agriculture...and modern nitrogen fertilizer is ammonia. Traditional agricultural strategies of slash and burn, fallow fields and crop rotation were gradually replaced in the 19th century by fertilizer from the mining of nitrates and harvesting of guano deposits. At the dawn of the 20th century, the end was in sight for Chilean nitrate deposits and there was growing concern that a worldwide famine would ensue. The discovery of ammonia synthesis by Fritz Haber and subsequent commercialization by Carl Bosch in 1910 freed the human race of the need to worry about a source of nitrogen fertilizer for a century.

The Haber Bosch process requires only pure nitrogen, pure hydrogen, and a high pressure reactor with a catalyst in order to produce ammonia. The nitrogen is free for the taking from the air but hydrogen, no matter what method we use to obtain it, involves the use of energy. The primary sources for the hydrogen used in ammonia manufacture today are natural gas and coal. There are an increasing number of petroleum coke projects in development, and a handful of remaining hydroelectric facilities built forty to sixty years ago.

Natural gas is the cleanest high volume production method used today, generating only about two tons of carbon dioxide for every ton of ammonia produced. Natural gas resources are being depleted just as oil has been The year 2007 saw the closure of the Agrium facility in Kenai, Alaska due to natural gas depletion, the impending conversion of Rentech's East Dubuque facility to coal from natural gas, and the Farmland Chemicals plant from Lawrence, Kansas resuming operation after being dismantled and reconstructed in its new location in natural gas rich Oman.

Natural gas supplies are certain to decline in the long term...and in the short term the price will be unpredictable. Coal is plentiful, petroleum coke is also readily available, but the carbon in these fuels is used in a gasification process to strip hydrogen from water which will result in a tremendous expansion of CO2 emissions. Coal based production emits about four tons of carbon dioxide per ton of ammonia and petroleum coke produces a bit more than that. All planned new production both domestically and globally seems to be coal gasification based. Carbon dioxide figures are uncertain as plant efficiency can have significant (25% or more) influence on overall output, but they are a good first approximation for estimates of national or global scope.

Global Ammonia Production Emissions

Global ammonia production is about 69% natural gas and 29% coal. One petroleum coke system is in operation today and three legacy hydroelectric facilities nearing end of life contribute about 1.5% of the total global production of 131 million tons.

The 90 million tons of ammonia produced annually with natural gas release 180 million tons of carbon dioxide. The 38 million tons of ammonia produced with coal released an estimated 152 million tons of carbon dioxide. The total 332 million tons of emissions are 7.3 % of the estimated 4,500 million tons of worldwide emissions of CO2.

Given that natural gas supplies are fragmented and depleting quickly it is reasonable to assume that existing natural gas based ammonia plants could be converted to coal gasification in an emergency. Should this happen ammonia related carbon dioxide emissions would climb to 524 million tons which would equal 11.6% of the 4,500 million tons humans already add to the atmosphere.

Ammonia In Domestic Agriculture

Fully half of all human protein comes from man made ammonia. Plants require nitrogen to produce protein and ammonia is the only viable source for large scale nitrogen applications. The United States uses about 18.5 million tons of ammonia annually from the global production of 131 million tons. 90% of this is used in agriculture. Over the last forty four years of statistics corn has averaged nearly 44% of the total, wheat almost 14%, and the remaining 42% of agricultural use is spread among all other crops.

American farmers planted 86 million acres of corn and 65 million acres of wheat in 2008.Corn fertilization averaged 170 pounds of ammonia per acre and wheat received 72 pounds per acre. Yields averaged 154 bushels per acre for corn and 36 bushels per acre for wheat.

Fertilization rates are given in ammonia equivalents. Depending on the crop, producer preference and availability, ammonia can be applied in various compounds. Actual usage by volume of nitrogen was anhydrous ammonia (59%), urea (27%), a mixture of urea and ammonium nitrate known as UAN (9%), and the remainder were various specialty forms of fixed nitrogen such as ammonium phosphate compounds.

Properly fertilized wheat will yield fifty to sixty bushels an acre while alternating fallow cultivation methods will struggle to produce just a little more than half that amount. Protein content is also a concern – hard red spring wheat will have up to 17% protein when fertilized and as little as 9% if not. Many farmers didn't fertilize in the fall of 2008 due to the difference between grain price and ammonia price which may mean a 50% reduction in total yield and a a 40% reduction in protein in what is harvested. If this has happened to farmers in all of the large wheat exporting nations, and we believe it has, it's a recipe for collapsing governments all over the developing world.

The corn crop is raised primarily for its starch content and protein is not closely tracked. A sudden reduction in ammonia based fertilizer input here will have the same yield effect as is seen with wheat – a sudden plunge to about half of the current average.

Domestic Ammonia Production Facilities

These 29 locations are ammonia plants either operating or, in the case of the recently idled Agrium Kenai facility, in good enough condition to be returned to service. Many of these plants are not purely ammonia production but instead operate in conjunction with follow on fertilizer manufacturing or are involved in the production of derivative industrial products such as nitric acid. All capacity figures are in thousands of tons of ammonia per year.

Owner	Location	Capacity
Agrium	Borger-TX	490
Agrium	Kenai-AK	280
Agrium	Kennewick-WA	545
CF Industries	Donaldsonville-LA	2040
Coffeyville Resources	Coffeyville-KS	375
Dakota Gasification	Beulah-ND	363
Dyno Nobel	Cheyenne-WY	174
Dyno Nobel	St. Helens-OR	101
Green Valley	Creston-IA	32
Honeywell International	Hopewell-VA	530
Koch Nitrogen	Beatrice-NE	265
Koch Nitrogen	Dodge City-KS	280
Koch Nitrogen	Enid-OK	930
Koch Nitrogen	Fort Dodge-IA	350
Koch Nitrogen	Sterlington-LA	1110
LSB Industries	Cherokee-AL	159
LSB Industries	Pryor-OK	300
Mosaic Company	Donaldsonville-LA	508
PCS Nitrogen	Augusta-GA	688
PCS Nitrogen	Geismar-LA	483
PCS Nitrogen	Lima-OH	542
PCS Nitrogen	Memphis-TN	371
Rentech Energy	East Dubuque-IA	278
Terra Industries	Beaumont-TX	231
Terra Industries	Donaldsonville-LA	360
Terra Industries	Port Neal-IA	336
Terra Industries	Verdigris-OK	953
Terra Industries	Woodward-OK	399
Terra Industries	Yazoo City-MS	454
Total		13945

U.S. Ammonia Facilities Excluding Alaska

This is a link to the Google Earth file that was used to produce the map image you see. Clicking individual site markers will lead to the given company's web page associated with the site, should I have been able to locate one. Koch and Terra are particularly forthcoming regarding what their plants actually produce.

Domestic Ammonia Economics

Domestic ammonia production was 10.7 million tons in 2007 and the USGS states that plants were running at 84% capacity, I list the Agrium Kennewick facility which is easily locatable both via Google Earth and web searches but it did not make the USGS plant list for that year. Capacity and production figures are not exact and I attribute this to overall market instability – plants were on and off based on commodity prices.

2007 imported ammonia totaled 7.9 million tons. Major suppliers were Trinidad (55%), Russia (21%), and Canada (12%). The price at port is stated to be $339/ton indicating a transfer of $2.7 billion overseas. 2008 prices were dramatically higher and wealth transfer was perhaps double this amount.

Trinidad, supplier of over half of our total imports, had reserves of 30.7 trillion cubic feet (~17 Tcf proven, 7.8 Tcf probable, 5.9 Tcf possible) of natural gas in 2004 and usage was just under a trillion cubic feet a year. Many additional industrial plants meant to use the inexpensive gas and labor in this Caribbean country were planned to come online between 2008 and 2010. A 2004 IMF study indicates that Trinidad would exhaust its reserves within ten years of these plants becoming active. The global economic recession should slow domestic industrial consumption but liquid natural gas exports will ensure an ongoing drawdown of reserves. Russian exports are subject to rising geopolitical tensions. TOD contributor Jon Freise has published a report indicating that Canadian natural gas is on a path to negative EROI within the next six years.

The three largest ammonia import sources are all under different stresses and will all fail within at most a decade, cutting the United States off from 88% of current imports. This alone will amount to a reduction in ammonia supplies in the continental United States of about 36%. Domestic natural gas fueled manufacturers face similar issues.

National Ammonia Independence

The United States can and must achieve national ammonia independence by a mix of refurbishing existing plants and construction of new renewable production facilities.

Existing facilities could produce about 14 million tons of ammonia annually and would require 2.5 million tons of hydrogen to do this. This hydrogen, current produced from a mix of natural gas and coal gasification could be replaced with electrolytically produced hydrogen.

Using current electrolyzers 6,300 two megawatt units would be required and assuming 8,760 hours of operation annually 12,500 megawatts of continuous power would be needed to fully replace hydrogen derived from fossil fuels. A scheme to buffer renewably produced hydrogen output would enhance the flexibility of such a configuration but at this time the best buffer seems to be just getting on with the process of making ammonia. Even so, the Louisiana ammonia plants may have access to nearby salt domes which would allow the creation of solution mined caverns capable of storing large volumes of hydrogen, a configuration that would naturally complement the large amount of wind resources available on the Texas plains.

Imports total 7.9 million tons. Based on business planning done by Third Mode Energy we calculate that this volume of production could be covered by 7,900 megawatts of continuous power and a $25 billion investment in Haber Bosch style plants. Assuming $0.04/kwh electricity resulting in an annual cost of $2.8 billion the physical plant costs could be recouped in ten to fifteen years given the ammonia pricing we saw in 2008. Hydroelectric or nuclear are the only clean power sources steady enough to drive this process today. We believe there is a simple route to a system that would work with a hybrid wind and base load power source but this likely uneconomical; why would anyone build a wind driven plant to run 85% of the time and only achieve 40% of capacity when the same equipment could be installed near a hydroelectric facility and produce 100% of the time?

Immediate construction of renewable ammonia facilities based on the very well known Haber Bosch process should begin at once but funds must be directed to promising new synthesis methods as well. Solid state ammonia synthesis (SSAS) promises capital costs that are half of the Haber Bosch systems, power costs that are perhaps 25% less, and the ability to build plants a tiny fraction of the size of a Haber Bosch plant, making it suitable for use with power sources as small and as variable as a single utility scale wind turbine.

Renewable Electric Sources

Ammonia can be produced by a completely carbon free process that releases no greenhouse gases. What is needed is renewably generated electricity at a relatively low cost, air and water.

Hydroelectric power for ammonia.

The United States Department of the Interior maintains a national inventory of dams – a database of over 8,800 locations in the United States with information regarding their purpose. This map and associated Google Earth file show 352 locations with either an impoundment in excess of eight square miles or a run of river installation. There is a negative correlation between good cropland and the elevation changes needed for good hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric power in the $0.02/kwh to $0.04/kwh range will yield ammonia in the $350 to $500/ton range.

Run Of River Or Impoundments Greater Than 5,120 Acres

Wind power for ammonia.

There is excellent correlation between national wind resources and the wheat growing states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Kansas. The corn growing states of Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, and Minnesota have good wind resources in their own right and usable rail links to the wind rich Dakotas. Assuming the wind intermittency problem can be remedied, either by the mastery of the solid state ammonia synthesis process or the creation of a grid footprint large enough to ensure continuous production, a wind energy based ammonia production industry can be envisioned. 7,900 2.5 megawatt turbines each with a 40% capacity factor would produce the electricity needed to cover the anticipated import deficit.

National Wind Energy Map

Solar power for ammonia.

Solar PV costs are too high for ammonia production based on current technology, but solar ammonia has potential.. A clever concentrated solar storage process using ammonia is in the pilot phase at the Australian National University but at this time there is no commercially deployable ammonia synthesis solution tuned for the sunny, relatively windless American southwest. A concentrated effort to develop such a thing would permit ammonia manufacture in that region, creating a domestic bilateral energy/food circuit in place of a similar trade arrangement with less friendly parts of the world.

National Solar Energy Map

Conclusions

This is a late draft of this white paper and it has been written in an attempt to provide a rigorous reference of manageable size for those working on renewable ammonia outreach and lobbying. I'm offering it here in hopes it'll get a thorough going over by the community before I have to start showing it to decision makers.