On January 17, 2023, a company called Amogy successfully concluded testing of their ammonia-powered zero-emissions semi-truck. Their testing ground was on the campus of Stony Brook University in New York City. The truck in question is a 2018 Freightliner Cascadia, a class 8 semi-truck by US standards and the heaviest classes of trucks on their roads. With only eight minutes of fuelling, their system produced 900 kWh of energy and was able to drive the nearly 15,000-kilogram truck using electricity generated from liquefied ammonia.
Amogy’s technology allows for the onboard cracking of ammonia into hydrogen, which is then sent directly to a fuel cell that powers the vehicle. Amogy claims that liquefied ammonia has an energy density that is approximately three times greater than compressed hydrogen and requires less energy to contain, making it cost-effective to store and transport.
“Beyond its incredible energy density and liquid phase at an ambient temperature, ammonia is an optimal fuel to achieve rapid decarbonization of heavy transportation because it is available globally with existing infrastructure already in place.”
Aside from these achievements in land transportation, Amogy is setting its eyes on pursuing strategic partnerships across global shipping and transportation industries. Amogy is set to unveil an ammonia-powered tugboat as well as other deployments with partners like their barge retrofit project with shipping company Souther Devall.
Major names have noticed these achievements and are starting to invest in Amogy. SK Innovation, a South Korean company, invested $30,000,000 USD in June 2022. Other companies that have invested in Amogy include Amazon, Aramco, a state-run energy company in Saudi Arabia, and AP Ventures, an investment institution based in the United Kingdom focused on the hydrogen industry.
