Shipping coal to Newcastle

Shipping hydrogen to Germany?

Vincent J. Curtis

23 Aug 22

The proposal that Canada manufacture and ship hydrogen in the form of ammonia to Germany is absurd.  The process calls for the electrolysis of water to separate hydrogen from water, and then to react the hydrogen with nitrogen to make ammonia.  To generate all the electrical power required, Ottawa plans to build a massive wind farm off the coast of Newfoundland.

Canada does not at present have a large scale water electrolyzing unit.  It doesn’t have the green energy to spare to run the operation; it will have to be built.  If we had it to spare, we could take more fossil fuel generation off-line.  Where would we get all this electrical gear?

Does the name Siemens ring a bell?  If you think that sounds awfully German, you’d be right.  So why is Germany asking Canada to manufacture ammonia when Germany’s Fritz Haber invented the process?  The reason is that Germany does not want to build a nuclear generator, which could supply Germany with the electrical power it wants directly and without the energy losses inherent in the Canadian chemistry project- in which Canada takes all the capital risks.

This is environmental weirdness writ large.  It doesn’t follow science (thermodynamics), economics, or even green environmentalism because of the CO2 emissions from shipping the ammonia across the ocean.  Image if Canada built a CANDU instead of a wind farm to create the chemical energy in ammonia, instead of Germany building its own nuclear reactor.

The dangers are many, since ammonia is a hazardous substance; but economic one is for Canada.  What if Germany comes to her senses before the massive capital investment is paid off.  What is Canada to do with a massive ammonia plant in south-western Newfoundland?

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Fritz Haber discovered the Haber-Bosch process for manufacturing ammonia from hydgrogen and nitrogen.  This discovery was absolutely essential for the forthcoming German war effort of WWI.  Without fixed nitrogen, Germany would have run out of gun powder not long after the war got intense.  Haber won the 1918 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the Born-Haber process.  Having Canada undertake chemical manufacturing for Germany couldn't be more absurd.  The only reason for it is the proposal for a wind farm off the coast of Newfoundland, which itself is absurd.  Luckilym the wind farm will not be part of the newfoundland electrical grid.