Startup seeks to produce ammonia directly from air and water

Australian startup Facet Amtech has developed a multifunctional catalyst designed to produce ammonia directly from air and water, potentially eliminating some of the most expensive stages in conventional ammonia production. The company has raised A$3 million, or about $2.1 million, in a seed round led by Main Sequence and Uniseed to build a small-scale pilot plant in 2027, according to AgFunderNews.

Facet Amtech was founded in 2024 by Peter Richardson and James Bradley, two mechanical engineers. Their technology targets the production of one of the most important industrial inputs for nitrogen fertilizers.

Conventional ammonia production requires hydrogen and nitrogen to be obtained through separate processes before they are combined. Grey ammonia generally uses natural gas to produce hydrogen, while green ammonia uses electricity to obtain hydrogen from water through electrolysis.

Facet Amtech is attempting to eliminate those separate steps with a single catalyst that performs water splitting and nitrogen reduction at the same time.

“Effectively our catalyst takes the water and does the separation of hydrogen from the water itself, and then separately does the ammonia formation on the same catalyst surface. It does those two reactions concurrently”, Richardson told AgFunderNews.

If the technology works at industrial scale, the company believes it could significantly simplify ammonia plants by reducing the amount of equipment and infrastructure required.

The potential economic advantage is not only a more efficient catalyst, but the possibility of removing dedicated hydrogen production from the process.

“Today, the majority of the cost of making ammonia is from the natural gas or from the electricity that goes into making the green hydrogen, which we’re not doing. So we take out a bunch of that capital cost, and we’re replacing that with one big reactor and one large batch of relatively cheap catalyst”, Richardson said.

The process still requires heat and pressure, although the company says it can operate under milder conditions than the conventional Haber-Bosch process. Renewable electricity could provide part of the required thermal energy, while waste heat could potentially be used in some installations.

Facet Amtech is still evaluating whether filtered liquid water or steam provides the best economics. Steam requires additional energy because water must first be converted into vapor.

The company manufactures its catalyst internally using pure metal powders blended in proprietary ratios and heat-treated in a furnace. It does not use platinum-group metals or rare earth elements.

Richardson expects the catalyst's cost to be comparable to, or potentially lower than, conventional iron-based ammonia catalysts.

“We anticipate that overall catalyst costs will be roughly on par or potentially even a bit cheaper than at a normal Haber Bosch plant”, he said.

The first major scale-up test is planned for early 2027, with a target production rate of 1 kilogram of ammonia per day. If successful, Facet Amtech plans to progressively increase the size of its pilots.

The company expects its second pilot to produce approximately 100 kilograms per day, around two years after the first test. By the early 2030s, it aims to reach a 4-ton-per-day pilot that could provide data needed to assess industrial-scale production.

One important milestone will be proving that the catalyst can operate continuously for extended periods. The company is targeting more than 2,000 hours of continuous operation in a future pilot.

Facet Amtech also plans to pursue a licensing model. Rather than owning and operating large ammonia plants, the startup intends to license its technology and supply its proprietary catalyst to major fertilizer companies.

“We’re basically looking to slot into the existing value chain in the traditional role of a technology provider, where we would license our design to a [large fertilizer company such as] Yara, Nutrien, or CF Industries, who’s then going to be the plant owner operator”, Richardson explained.

The company is targeting large-scale facilities capable of producing approximately 500 to 3,000 tons of ammonia per day, rather than focusing on the smaller distributed plants pursued by some other startups.

Facet Amtech has already held discussions with ammonia producers, engineering companies, technology providers and potential buyers. Several major industry players have offered to help test the catalyst and evaluate the potential capital costs of future plants.

The company is also building its business case around direct competition with conventional grey ammonia rather than relying on carbon credits or a premium for low-carbon products.

“What we’re striving for is being cheaper than grey ammonia without including any carbon pricing. It’s a pure economic play”, Richardson said, according to AgFunderNews.

The next step will be crucial: demonstrating that a catalyst capable of performing multiple reactions simultaneously can move from laboratory results to a commercially viable industrial process.