Cambridge startup has right chemistry to cut reliance on fossil fuels

One of the most exciting recent innovations in the space is focused on overcoming the intermittency of renewable energy in Power-to-X processes and comes courtesy of two recent graduates of the impulse programme.

Professor Laura Torrente Murciano and Dr Collin Smith, co-founders of Cambridge Innovations in Ammonia (CIA), completed the three-month innovation programme last year. The company is looking at the design and optimisation of technologies for the decarbonisation of chemical processes.

The chemical industry provides over 60,000 products underpinning every aspect of modern life – but is also responsible for over 15 per cent of global CO2 emissions, largely due to the use of fossil fuels as an energy source in chemical production.

The decarbonisation of the industry relies heavily on the use of renewable energy to power future processes and produce renewable feeds in what is called Power-to-X (P2X).

These new processes can convert renewable electricity into molecules such as green ammonia or methanol which can be used in sectors that are difficult to electrify or stored for later use.

However, while new technologies are being developed for Power-to-X, most of the processes are not economically competitive with the fossil-fuel driven ones - which is why CIA has developed a novel optimisation framework for Power-to-X processes which additionally enhances their economic competitiveness whilst providing robust business models.

CIA’s AI-powered algorithms take a holistic approach to chemical processes, using long-term historical weather data (>40 years), to deliver project-specific solutions in a quick and efficient way.

Professor Laura Torrente Murciano says: “If we want to decarbonise as a society, we need to find a way to effectively store renewable energy which is typically intermittent. We believe that ammonia is a great way of storing renewable energy, and it is also carbon-free.

“The long-term storage of renewable energy in the chemical bonds of green ammonia and methanol is additionally poised to decarbonise other sectors such as transport and the electrical grid, making their economic production a top priority to achieve the 2050 net zero targets.

“Accelerating the decarbonisation of chemical processes is an area where close collaboration between academia and industry is critical. We are engaging with renewable energy developers, engineering firms and investment funds to bring state-of-the-art optimisation algorithms to market, to de-risk green projects form early development stages in our quest to decarbonise the society while providing growth and energy security.”