CNN
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In Nelson Mandela Bay, in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, thousands of hectares of land could one day become the world’s largest green ammonia plant.
Ammonia, which is made up of nitrogen and hydrogen, is commonly used as a fertilizer. In the early 1910s scientists devised a way to synthesize it, but before then, the main agricultural fertilizer was guano, bat or bird excrement, which had to be obtained from tropical islands and was in short supply.
Production of ammonia at an industrial scale allowed agriculture to boom, and according to a study from the University of Manitoba, without it, we wouldn’t be able to produce roughly half of the world’s food today.
internet balloons used to deliver part of its network in Zanzibar. Two solar-powered, helium-filled balloons will float 300 meters (984 feet) above land and have a broadcast range of around 70 kilometers (44 miles) apiece, using 3G and 4G frequencies to deliver their signal. ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
$58 billion project, started in 2015, is designed to be a hub for government and the finance industry. Egypt hopes to entice some of the 20 million residents of its current capital, Cairo, to relocate to the new city, where there is space for 6.5 million people.
The city will feature numerous skyscrapers, including Africa’s soon-to-be tallest building, the Iconic Tower (pictured in the background). In 2020 a $4 billion, 100-kilometer monorail project, connecting Cairo and the new city, was announced. ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is one of Africa’s biggest infrastructure projects. Built on the Blue Nile River near Ethiopia’s border with Sudan, the $5 billion dam will generate 6,000 megawatts of electricity annually. The project aims to turn Ethiopia into Africa’s biggest hydroelectric exporter.
But the dam has been controversial from the get-go. The Blue Nile is one of two sources for the River Nile, providing 85% of the water that flows north through Sudan and Egypt, to the Mediterranean. Colonial-era agreements mean Egypt and Sudan, which rely on the river for their water supply, have maintained control over the river in the past — but Ethiopia’s dam threatens this. Negotiations between Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt are ongoing, but an agreement is yet to be reached. Ethiopia began generating electricity from the dam on February 20, 2022.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
expansion in 2015 to increase trading potential, and it has paid off, with a 4.7% rise in revenue. However, further expansion might be on the cards: in September 2020, Hala el Said, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, said that $1.1 billion has been allocated to upgrades on the Suez Canal project in 2021. Further expansion is scheduled for completion in 2023.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
deepest in sub-Saharan Africa — is intended to increase Nigeria’s commercial operations across West Africa and its global trading potential. It is designed to handle four million metric tons of dry goods a year. The Chinese Development Bank has loaned $629 million to the project and China Harbour Engineering Company is providing $221 million in equity funding for the port, which is expected to generate revenue of $361 billion and create up to 170,000 new jobs. The port was 96% completed as of July 27, per Lekki Port.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
high-speed rail were announced in January 2021. In May this year, Siemens announced it had finalized a 8.1 billion euro ($8.31 billion) contract with its partners and the Egyptian government for a 2,000-kilometer (1,243-mile) rail system linking 60 cities across the country. (Pictured: a rendering of future fleet carriages.)” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
largest commercial port, Walvis Bay processes five million tons of cargo every year. A $300 million, five-year project has seen the port more than double its capacity for container units and reduce waiting times for ships. Its new container terminal, built on 40 hectares of reclaimed land, was announced to be fully operational in September 2020. ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
capacity. It’s not just bad for the economy — fuel shortages mean Nigeria suffers frequent power cuts. But Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is building an oil refinery he says will solve Nigeria’s fuel problem. Covering 2,635 hectares, the new Dangote Petroleum Refinery will be the largest in Africa, with capacity to process 650,000 barrels a day. Dangote hopes to create a market for Nigerian crude oil worth $11 billion annually. ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
largest infrastructure project undertaken by Kenya since it gained independence in 1963.
Construction of the first 300-mile (482 kilometer) section between the coastal city of Mombasa and Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, was completed in 2017. Traveling at an average speed of 74 miles (120 kilometers) per hour, the train journey between the two cities now takes just four hours instead of 12. The $3.8 billion project was built by Chinese construction company China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), and 90% funded by China Exim Bank.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
$1.5 billion project was also built by CRBC and financed by Exim Bank. Extensions to the current line are still under consideration for the coming years, with proposals for lines connecting with Ethiopia, Uganda and South Sudan, as well as further lines within Kenya.” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
Lagos-Kano Standard Gauge Railway, in Nigeria, will span 1,678 miles (2,700 kilometers) from the port city of Lagos, to the northern city of Kano, near the border with Niger. Intended to boost the economy, the railway will carry both passengers and freight. Built by China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) and partially funded by Exim Bank, the project is being completed in multiple stages: the first section between Abuja and Kaduna was completed in 2016, while the second Lagos to Ibadan section began trials in December 2020. ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
Konza Technological City (also known as Konza Technopolis) is designed to become home to Kenya’s burgeoning tech scene. Just 37 miles outside of Nairobi, the 5,000-acre city is the flagship project of Kenya 2030 Vision, an initiative to push economic growth in the tech and communications sector.
Progress on the project has been slow, but it has raised more than $666 million in funding from China, and Chinese telecoms giants Huawei will develop the data center for the project. Current plans include integrated smart city technology such as roadway sensors that optimize traffic flow . ” class=”image_gallery-image__dam-img”/>
Ammonia is also used to manufacture explosives for the mining industry and is a key ingredient in many pharmaceutical and cleaning products. Currently, its production mainly involves fossil fuels and is responsible for 1.8% of global CO2 emissions. But by using renewable energy, “green” ammonia can be manufactured, slashing the carbon footprint of agricultural production and opening up the compound to further uses.
Prominent among them is the use of ammonia as fuel, which could help decarbonize the shipping sector. It is what the Mandela Bay plant will focus on. “It’ll start replacing heavy fuel oils on ships and it’ll replace diesel. That will become the fuel of the future, particularly in the maritime industry,” says Colin Loubser, managing director of Hive Energy Africa, which is building the plant.
The process to make green ammonia is quite simple, Loubser says, requiring just water, air and energy. Electrolysis is used to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen, and an air separation unit extracts nitrogen from the air. The hydrogen and nitrogen are then combined to produce ammonia.
“The process of making it green is that you’re using renewable energy for this. You’re not using fossil fuels, coal or gas to make it. It’s a completely green process,” says Loubser.
Projected to start operations in 2026, the plant will cost $4.6 billion. It will be powered by a nearby solar farm and will get its water — of which vast amounts are needed to make ammonia — from a local table salt factory that desalinates seawater.
At least 20,000 jobs will be created in the region over the lifespan of the project, according to Loubser.
It will be a welcome development for the area. “We were hit very hard by Covid,” says Asanda Xawuka of the Coega Development Corporation, the entity in charge of bringing employment to the region. “A number of jobs were lost in South Africa. For us in the Eastern Cape, the unemployment rate is sitting at over 50%. (This) means an investment of this nature with a number of jobs that are going to be created, it’s going to be very big.”
The shipping industry made up nearly 3% of global CO2 emissions in 2018. According to the International Energy Agency, ammonia will need to account for 45% of the global energy demand for shipping in 2050, for net zero scenarios to realize, which means it’s an essential component of a greener future. But green ammonia could also be burned in existing coal-fired power plants to quickly reduce their CO2 emissions, the study notes, or in plants customized to run entirely on ammonia.
One limiting factor is that ammonia is a pungent and toxic gas, so it needs to be handled by trained professionals. Using it as a fuel produces nitrogen oxides, which can act as greenhouse gases and cause air pollution, requiring additional technology to control emissions.
And many of the systems that will make use of green ammonia – including ship engines – are still under development, which is why production levels are low at the moment. However, production is expected to boom: according to a report by Precedence Research, the green ammonia market accounted for just $36 million in 2021, but will grow to $5.4 billion by 2030.
