Essays by Eric Worrall
The United Nations has been pushing poor, fossil fuel-rich African countries to adopt unacceptably expensive green solutions to their food production problems.
How transformative innovation can change the compass on climate change
December 15, 2022
UN Climate Change Bulletin, December 15, 2022 – At the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh in November, government delegates and many experts highlighted key innovative approaches to tackling climate change , especially in the areas of energy, food and buildings at the Global Innovation Center dialogues organized by the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat.
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Green hydrogen is focused on for the first time as a key solution to climate change
At COP27, the participants for the first time focused heavily on green hydrogen as a key component of the transition to clean energy, which is essential to achieving the central Paris Agreement goal of keeping the temperature rise. the global average is as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible.
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While representatives of The African nations of Mauritania and Namibia explain that their countries are keen to capitalize on the potential of green hydrogen and to grow industries while creating jobs, they also note another important area where green hydrogen could be deployed: boost food production with the help of carbon-free ammonia fertilizers generated with the help of hydrogen. Ammonia production is very energy intensive and currently causes about 1.8% of global carbon dioxide emissions.
“At this stage, exporting hydrogen is a challenge in terms of transport and efficiency. Ammonia seems to be one of the ready solutionsKhoumbaly Lebhbid of the Mauritania Ministry of Oil, Mines and Energy says there is already a market for that.
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Read more: https://unfccc.int/news/how-transformative-innovation-can-shift-the-needle-on-climate-change
Mauritania and Namibia don’t need tried and tested solutions, they need tried and tested solutions that can solve their food shortages and poverty. And such solutions are available.
Commercial ammonia production in the West requires large amounts of fossil fuels. Mauritania has one of the largest natural gas fields in Africa. Namibia also has large oil and gas reserves. Both countries are struggling to attract investment to develop the resources – but the resources are still there, waiting to be exploited.
So why is the United Nations pushing for something like green hydrogen, which has yet to demonstrate real-world cost competitiveness?
I suspect, and this is only a conjecture, that the United Nations wants Mauritania and Namibia to leave their fossil fuel deposits underground. And they can get help from people inside the governments of Mauritania and Namibia.
If Mauritania and Namibia drilled a few gas wells and used well-known commercial processes to produce Ammonia, they could dramatically improve food production almost overnight, as well as produce quantities of it. significant export value products.
Dilute ammonia can be applied directly to plants as a fertilizer without further treatment.
Whenever I clean my pet’s room, I sometimes throw dilute ammonia floor cleaning waste on my citrus. The results are spectacular – in my subtropical backyard, my fruit trees grow several inches whenever I apply ammonia. Ammonia doesn’t seem to accumulate in the soil, my guess is that any ammonia that isn’t absorbed simply evaporates or washes away.
But the ammonia that evaporates from the fields is a greenhouse gas. And the production of Ammonia releases large amounts of CO2, both to compress the gas to the required extreme temperature and pressure, and from steam fossil fuel to produce hydrogen, one of the necessary ingredients for the synthesis of ammonia.
WOMEN2 + 3 HOURS2 = 2NHS3 (Ammonia)
I don’t know why Khoumbaly Lebhbid of Mauritania’s Ministry of Oil, Mines and Energy, whoever he is, spoke in favor of UN plans to redirect his country into an ineffectual dead end. as green ammonia production.
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