Ammonia is a key commodity, serving as a fertiliser, a feedstock for the chemical industry and an emerging energy carrier. The sector is heavily dependent on the fossil-fuel driven Haber-Bosch production route, which alone accounts for more than one third of the CO₂ emissions of the (petro)chemical industry. Decarbonising this route largely relies on the (i) integration of carbon capture, (ii) use of biomass derived hydrogen, and (iii) electrification. This report first maps the technical challenges of each pathway and then examines market deployment and R&D trends. Results confirm that while carbon capture is a mature technology, high costs and regulatory uncertainty limit its uptake. On the contrary, the biomass-fed route suffers from low ammonia yields that restrict its potential for large-scale deployment in the future. Although coupling intermittent renewable energy with the continuous Haber-Bosch synthesis loop remains a major barrier of the electrified route, first-of-a-kind plants are already operational, with more projects planned in the future. This has been largely possible due to recent progress and innovations in operational solutions, such as advanced forecasting, optimisation and control systems. The necessary individual technologies are therefore largely available; what is needed now are incremental performance improvements and, most importantly, a system-level integration within a supportive financing and policy framework that will accelerate the decarbonisation of the ammonia industry.

VASILAKOU Konstantina; 

2026-07-23

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC147467

978-92-68-42062-1 (online),   

1831-9424 (online),   

EUR 40787,    OP KJ-01-26-312-EN-N (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC147467,   

10.2760/2677610 (online),