Air Liquide commissioned the world's first industrial-scale pilot plant for ammonia cracking in November 2025 at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges. The unit processes 30 metric tons of ammonia per day into hydrogen and nitrogen, and the cracking process itself generates no direct CO2 emissions.
The technology builds on Air Liquide's SMR-X platform and uses a heat exchanger with counter-current flow in the reactor tubes, enabling internal heat recovery and improving energy efficiency. Part of the ammonia is used as fuel to supply the required process heat, and because ammonia contains no carbon, cracking produces no direct CO2.
The pilot is intended to demonstrate reliable operation at industrial scale and provide operational data for designing larger commercial units. It is positioned as a link in international supply chains for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen, with ammonia serving as a carrier that is relatively easy to transport over long distances.
Air Liquide is financing the project itself with support from the Flemish government through VLAIO, and has not disclosed the investment amount. The related Enhance project was awarded €110 million from the EU Innovation Fund and is expected to avoid more than 300,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually by replacing natural gas as a hydrogen feedstock with renewable ammonia.
The ultimate climate benefit depends on how the ammonia is produced and transported, with significant reductions only where ammonia is renewable or demonstrably low-carbon. Further upscaling requires large-scale supply of renewable or low-carbon ammonia, long-term contracts and harmonized greenhouse gas accounting across supply chains.
