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This audio is brought to you by Wearcheck, your condition monitoring specialist.Huge demand for green ammonia from power stations is being seen by the developer of South Africa’s R105-billion green hydrogen to green ammonia project in the Eastern Cape.Hive Hydrogen South Africa, chaired by for Eskom CEO and former Standard Bank chairperson Thulani Gcabashe, has progressed from mid-stage to advanced-stage development with Phase 1 of the far-reaching green hydrogen to green ammonia project at the Coega Industrial Development Zone, in Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay.”This is a really exciting time for us,” Hive Hydrogen GM Colin Loubser enthused in a Zoom interview with Engineering News & Mining Weekly. (Also watch attached Creamer Media video.)With the renewable energy green electron assets proceeding to plan, Hive has completed front end engineering design or FEED studies on the green hydrogen molecule portion and has begun the request for information process with all the engineering procurement and construction companies, both global and local.In addition to maritime market demand burgeoning exponentially for green ammonia to enable unacceptable sea pollution to be brought to an end, the world is seeing an unexpected revolution in the power side.”We’ve started to see ammonia turbines coming out that are ready for deployment, so we see green ammonia power stations replacing coal-fired power stations and new power station demand for green ammonia, and that’s a really exciting development.”We spoke recently to a European project that would require all our annual production of green ammonia to fire a green ammonia power station they’re planning. This nascency of the market has started to mature now into an early-stage industry. It’s starting to find traction now in global plans.”The hottest topic is how green ammonia is going to reshape particularly the maritime industry, which is a heavy polluter of the oceans. The use of heavy fuel oils and diesels not only pollute the air, but spillages also pollute the water and there are big carbonisation issues.”We’re seeing, in looking at the shipping industry now, the number of ships that have been commissioned to run on green ammonia as a maritime fuel is exponentially increasing. The technology readiness levels of the green ammonia engines for shipping have reached technology readiness level nine, which means they’re bankable and high quality,” said Loubser.Another key advance has been the visit of strategic investors to South Africa. “We’ve had a delegation of 19 people from Japan. We’ve got a few more delegations coming in from Europe, and potentially from the US as well. The project has a lot of momentum, and it’s moving at the right pace, and in the right direction.”Hive signed a memorandum of cooperation with Itochu in December last year with offtake being spotlighted.”Almost a daily activity in my life is talking to offtakers. That’s going exceptionally well. We’re very confident of European and Far East offtake.”In the next couple of weeks at the most, we’ll see direction of how contracts will look for Korea and Japan.”We’re also seeing huge shifts in green ammonia demand out of the fertiliser industry in Europe and more and more by industry looking to cracking ammonia back to hydrogen.”We ‘re very focused on Japan, Korea and on the green fertiliser industry in Europe. What is exciting for future phases and maybe even a little bit for the first phase of our project is the increase of South Africa’s interest in offtake in South Africa. We have to find a balance on that, and have to fit into all the regulatory regimes that Japan and Korea are now implementing, and Europe similarly.”So, it’s really good timing. We’ve anticipated the nascency of the marketplace well, it’s now emerging as a proper plan, and, luckily, we think we’ve called it correctly,” Loubser added.Will funding still be a combination of 70% debt and 30% equity and is the final investment decision (FI…