Monolith Materials, Lincoln, Nebraska, a leader in clean energy and chemical production, is in the process of using its proprietary process to produce approximately 275,000 metric tons per year of carbon-free anhydrous ammonia in the United States. Current ammonia production practices account for approximately 1% of total global greenhouse gas emissions, or roughly the equivalent of the total emissions of the United Kingdom.
"Since its inception, Monolith Materials has been committed to developing solutions that are environmentally transformative, technologically advanced and financially viable," said Rob Hanson, CEO of Monolith Materials and the company’s co-founder. "Being able to produce one of the world’s most essential products in a way that is carbon-free is a significant step not only for our company, but for the industry and even society as a whole."
Monolith Materials, which was founded in 2012, invented and developed a process technology that converts natural gas into a material called carbon black and clean hydrogen. Monolith Materials is in the commissioning stages of Olive Creek 1, its first commercial-scale carbon-free production facility, which is designed to produce approximately 14,000 metric tons of carbon black per year. With the next phase of its facilities, the company plans to use the hydrogen generated via its manufacturing process to cleanly produce ammonia and potentially a wide array of other products that require hydrogen.
Anhydrous ammonia, the building block for essentially all nitrogen fertilizer, is used by a wide variety of industries. Eighty percent of ammonia produced is utilized by the agriculture industry in fertilizer to help sustain food production for billions of people around the world. In the United States, the "Corn Belt," stretching from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Nebraska and neighboring states, imports over 1.7 million metric tons of ammonia. Monolith is focused on providing locally sourced, clean anhydrous ammonia.
"Today’s announcement is exciting news for Nebraska and our state’s ag producers," said Gov. Pete Ricketts. "Monolith Materials’ new plant in Hallam will grow Nebraska by creating great-paying jobs. The fertilizer it produces will also help our farmers enrich the soil they cultivate by replenishing vital nutrients. Thanks to Monolith Materials for choosing to grow its operations here in the Cornhusker State."
Monolith Materials’ carbon-free ammonia bonds Turquoise Hydrogen with nitrogen from the air using the Haber-Bosch process. Turquoise Hydrogen is derived using methane pyrolysis to split the methane molecules into carbon and hydrogen. The process generates no CO2. Monolith projects that it will create 3 metric tons of cleanly made, valuable carbon black for every 1 metric ton of hydrogen it produces.
"This is great news for 21st-century agriculture, where we face the challenge of decarbonizing age-old processes at the same time as we must scale up production to keep pace with population growth," said Trevor Brown, executive director, Ammonia Energy Association. "We need to deploy every available technology to accelerate this energy transition and Monolith’s methane pyrolysis process has potential to deliver low-carbon ammonia in the right place at the right scale and at the right cost."
Combined, Monolith Materials’ carbon-free ammonia and carbon black production are expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 1 million metric tons per year compared to traditional manufacturing processes. Monolith Materials’ ammonia production facility will integrate with a new, 180,000 metric tons-per-year carbon black production facility known as Olive Creek 2. Like the current OC1 facility, OC2 will be located in Hallam, Nebraska, near many of the nation’s largest agricultural companies and run on 100% renewable electricity.
