Tan Chin Tuan Seminar on Global Perspective of Large-Scale Green Ammonia Production

Dr John W. Sheffield 

Professor of Engineering Technology

Purdue University

This seminar will be chaired by A/P Li Hong.

Large-scale production of green hydrogen and green ammonia will play a crucial role by coupling different energy and chemical subsectors. Beyond its role as a clean liquid energy carrier, green ammonia has the potential to decarbonize applications ranging from the production of chemical fertilizers to fuel for maritime transport. Green ammonia can strengthen industrial competitiveness in consuming regions by creating opportunities for accessing affordable green hydrogen and ammonia. At the same time, it can support economic development and diversification for the producing regions. The Envision Zero Carbon Technology is the world's largest green hydrogen and ammonia project located in Yuanbaoshan Industrial Park, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, China and currently delivering 320,000 t/y of green ammonia, with exports starting in the 4th quarter of 2025. The Helios Industry plans to invest over $1 bn for green ammonia production facility in the Khalifa Industrial Zone of Abu Dhabi, powered by an 800 MW solar PV plant.  At peak capacity, the annual production will be 200,000 t/y of green ammonia. Finally, the NEOM Green Hydrogen Project in Saudi Arabia will become the world’s largest green hydrogen/ammonia production facility when commissioned in 2026 with capacity of producing 1.2 million t/y of green ammonia.

Dr. Sheffield served as a founding associate director of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization - International Centre for Hydrogen Energy Technologies during the first year of operation in 2005. For more than forty years, he has served as an editor of the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. He served as the President of the International Association for Hydrogen Energy from 2019 - 2024, having previously served as the Executive Vice President. He served as a Professor at Xi’an Jiaotong University in Xi'an, China teaching a graduate course on hydrogen energy technologies from 2019 - 2022. He served as a member of the Advisory Board of the "H2 JRP - Hydrogen Joint Research Platform" from 2022-2025. In 2022, he received the Outstanding Leadership in Globalization Award from Purdue University. In 2023, he became a 2023 Energy Scholar at the Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems at Oklahoma University. In 2025, he received a Fulbright Specialist Project in collaboration with La Universidad San Francisco de Quito (USFQ) in Quito, Ecuador to help decarbonize the Galápagos Islands using hydrogen energy technologies. In 2025, he received a Tan Chin Tuan Exchange Fellowship in Engineering under MAE at NTU.