Addis Energy today introduced its technology platform, which harnesses the Earth’s chemical and thermal potential for clean ammonia production at low cost through a net energy-positive process. The platform unlocks energy abundance and affordability by combining next-generation chemical innovation with legacy expertise from the oil and gas industry, and will create new economic opportunities for domestic energy production with zero emissions. Addis Energy has raised $8.75 million total to date: $4.5 million from ARPA-E through its Vision OPEN program and $4.25 million in pre-seed funding from Engine Ventures, Pillar VC and Voyager Ventures. This month, the company’s co-founder Dr. Iwnetim Abate published a paper in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Joule outlining how ammonia can be produced directly from iron-rich rocks using only the injection of nitrate-source water into the Earth’s subsurface. The novel process leverages established oil and gas drilling techniques to access subsurface heat and pressure, offering a low carbon intensity alternative to conventional ammonia synthesis at cost parity.
“Ammonia is one of the most produced and crucial chemicals in the world. Without its use in fertilizers, it would be impossible to feed nearly half of the global population. However, existing ammonia production processes account for 2% of global energy consumption and nearly twice the CO2 emissions as crude steel production,” said Michael Alexander, CEO and co-founder of Addis Energy. “Addis Energy has identified a revolutionary chemical reaction that allows us to use the Earth to produce clean ammonia via a carbon-free and net energy-positive process at lower cost – recovering more energy from the ammonia produced than what’s required to create it.”
Technology Platform and Results
Instead of searching for areas of naturally occurring hydrogen build-up and drilling into the Earth to access it, Addis Energy identifies ferrous rocks and simulates the process of hydrogen creation by injecting the rocks with water, nitrogen and a predominantly nickel and copper-based catalyst. The company’s technology can target shallow rock formations and integrates with existing oil and gas infrastructure, enhancing hydrogen generation rates and yields by 300x. Because hydrogen is difficult to transport, Addis Energy converts its hydrogen yield into liquid ammonia via an in-situ underground Haber-Bosch reaction. Compared to green ammonia production, which requires greater than 16 GJ/t net energy input and costs $1150/t to produce, Addis Energy’s geologic ammonia produces 18 GJ/t net energy output and costs as low as $200/t to produce – a third of the cost of typical ammonia production, including fossil-produced ammonia.
Research Paper Implications
“Addis Energy’s innovation paves a path toward affordable energy abundance by leveraging the earth as a feedstock to cost-effectively produce carbon-free ammonia,” said Michael Kearney, Board Director and General Partner at Engine Ventures. “This technology has the potential to rapidly scale in partnership with the existing energy industry, and ultimately help the hard-to-abate chemical and energy sectors achieve sustainability and decarbonization.”
"Addis Energy has developed an ingenious approach to ammonia production by combining advanced catalysis with subsurface chemistry," said Leonardo Banchik, Investment Director at Voyager Ventures. "Their technology has the potential to dramatically reduce costs below traditional methods while virtually eliminating emissions in one of the world's largest and most carbon-intensive chemical markets. This is exactly the kind of transformative technology we seek to back, and we're thrilled to support this talented team."
Titled “Geological Ammonia: Stimulated NH3 production from rocks,” Dr. Abate’s newly published paper describes how ammonia can be efficiently generated from rocks with nitrate-source water at 130 °C, 300 °C, and even at ambient temperature and pressure. The paper outlines a first-of-its-kind chemical process where iron naturally present in rocks reduces nitrate to form ammonia, with the hydrogen in ammonia coming from water rather than fossil fuels. Involving only the injection of nitrate-source water into the subsurface to utilize in-situ subsurface thermal and pressure, Addis Energy’s process requires no external hydrogen and emits no CO2.
Team and Expansion Plans
The Addis Energy founding team includes innovators in the oil and gas industry who are creating a new arena of U.S.-led, domestic clean fuel and chemical production. The company’s Chief Operating Officer Charlie Mitchell received his MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) after a career as a petroleum engineer, in which he oversaw drilling, completions, and production operations across a variety of conventional and unconventional assets. Alexander also received his MBA from HBS and previously worked as a chemical engineer, with eight years of experience in oil refining across roles in capital projects, process engineering and operations supervision. The founding team also includes Chief Science Officer Dr. Abate and Chief Strategy Officer and repeat cleantech entrepreneur Dr. Yet-Ming Chiang, both of whom serve as professors of Materials Science and Engineering at MIT.
"Some of the world's most impactful companies are born when faculty, students, and industry experts move technology out of the lab and into the market," said Jamie Goldstein, founding partner of Pillar VC. "Addis Energy has a promising solution for increasing ammonia production affordably, which has significant implications for the global food supply. Our entire team at Pillar VC is eager to support them as they work towards commercializing their platform."
In the coming months, Addis Energy will continue to build out its headquarters and lab space in the Greater Boston area, expand its research and development team, and identify potential pilot program locations across the U.S.