As countries and industries look for cleaner ways to power hard-to-electrify sectors, ammonia is gaining renewed attention as a potential energy carrier and fuel. While electrification remains central to decarbonization, sectors such as shipping, heavy industry, distributed power, and data infrastructure often require higher energy density, longer storage duration, and more flexible deployment models.

Ammonia’s appeal lies partly in its existing global production, storage, and transportation infrastructure. It also offers a way to move hydrogen in liquid form more practically than compressed hydrogen, although wider adoption still depends on advances in conversion technology, safety protocols, low-carbon supply, regulation, and cost competitiveness.

Amogy is among the companies working to commercialize ammonia-based power systems for mobility and stationary power applications. The company has raised US$320 million from investors, including Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Temasek, SK Innovation, and Aramco Ventures, and has demonstrated its technology in maritime applications, including what it describes as the world’s first carbon-free, ammonia-powered maritime vessel.

In this TNGlobal Q&A, Seonghoon Woo, founding Chief Executive Officer of Amogy, discusses why ammonia is becoming more relevant in hard-to-abate sectors, where ammonia-to-power systems may see early commercial demand, and how markets in Asia could help shape the next phase of clean energy deployment. Woo holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT with a Minor in Finance, and was recognized as a Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia honoree and a Presidential Young Scientist in South Korea in 2018.

Ammonia is receiving renewed attention in clean energy discussions. What is driving that shift now, and why is it becoming more relevant in sectors where full electrification remains difficult?

The renewed focus on ammonia comes from a growing recognition that electrification alone will not decarbonize the entire global economy. Batteries work well for passenger vehicles and short-duration applications, but sectors like shipping, heavy industry, large-scale power generation, and data infrastructure require energy solutions with far higher energy density and longer operating duration.

Ammonia is attracting attention because it solves some of the biggest practical challenges around hydrogen, especially storage and transportation. It has a significantly higher volumetric energy density than compressed hydrogen and can be stored as a liquid under relatively moderate conditions. Just as importantly, ammonia already benefits from a mature global supply chain, with decades of existing infrastructure for production, storage, shipping, and handling.

That matters because the energy transition is about deploying solutions at industrial scale and within realistic timelines. Ammonia allows the industry to build on existing infrastructure rather than starting entirely from scratch.

As countries look for reliable clean energy solutions that can scale realistically, ammonia is emerging as one of the few practical pathways for decarbonizing hard-to-abate sectors while supporting long-duration, dispatchable energy needs.

Compared with other hydrogen-related pathways, what are the main advantages and trade-offs of ammonia as an energy carrier or fuel?

Ammonia addresses one of hydrogen’s biggest challenges: logistics.

Hydrogen is an excellent zero-carbon energy carrier, but it is difficult and expensive to store and transport at scale because of its low volumetric energy density and demanding storage requirements. Ammonia offers a more practical pathway because it can efficiently carry hydrogen in liquid form using existing global infrastructure.

This makes ammonia much more practical for moving clean energy across regions and industries, especially for long-distance transportation and distributed power applications.

The trade-off is that ammonia must be converted back into usable energy efficiently and safely. That requires advanced cracking and power technologies, along with careful handling protocols given ammonia’s toxicity.

Importantly, ammonia has been safely produced, transported, and handled at industrial scale for decades, particularly in the fertilizer industry. As its role expands into energy applications, existing safety protocols are being further adapted and strengthened for use in sectors like maritime and power generation.

At Amogy, we’ve focused on making ammonia-to-power systems efficient and practical enough for real commercial use.

Which use cases appear most commercially promising today for ammonia-based energy systems, particularly across heavy industry, transport, maritime, or distributed power?

Today, one of the clearest near-term opportunities for ammonia-based energy systems is distributed power generation, especially for data centers and other energy-intensive infrastructure.

The rapid growth of AI and cloud computing is driving major increases in electricity demand. At the same time, operators need reliable, carbon-free power that is not dependent on weather conditions or limited grid capacity.

Ammonia-based systems can provide stable, dispatchable power with long-duration energy storage, which makes them well-suited for data centers, industrial facilities, and other critical infrastructure.

We see particularly strong interest in Asia, where land constraints and grid limitations are pushing countries to look at alternative clean power solutions. Amogy recently partnered with GS E&C to establish a joint venture focused on ammonia-based distributed power generation in South Korea, and we are also working with Hoku Infrastructure on deployment opportunities in Japan and other parts of Asia.

Maritime remains an important market for ammonia fuel, but we believe distributed power will likely be one of the first large-scale commercial applications.

Across the climate technology sector, one of the biggest challenges is moving from technical validation to real deployment. What does that transition require in practice for emerging energy platforms?

Moving from technical validation to real deployment requires proving that the system can operate reliably in real commercial environments over long periods of time.

For emerging energy technologies, the challenge is integrating into existing infrastructure, meeting customer operating requirements, and delivering systems that can scale economically.

At Amogy, we are increasingly focused on real-world deployment projects. One example is our distributed power initiative in Pohang, South Korea, where ammonia-to-power systems are being developed for industrial applications. Projects like this are important because they move the technology beyond demonstration projects and into real operating environments.

Partnerships are also critical. Deploying new energy systems requires coordination across fuel suppliers, EPC firms, utilities, industrial operators, and local governments. Ultimately, scaling new energy systems requires the full ecosystem to move together.

What are the biggest barriers that still need to be addressed before ammonia-based energy systems can scale more widely, whether in infrastructure, regulation, cost, safety, or market readiness?

The largest challenges today are fuel economics, supply availability, and regulatory alignment.

While ammonia itself is already produced and traded globally at scale, the industry’s long-term decarbonization goals depend on expanding the availability and lowering the cost of low-carbon and green ammonia.

However, the economics are steadily improving as renewable energy costs decline, electrolyzer capacity expands, and global clean fuel demand accelerates. We believe scale will play a major role in narrowing the cost gap over time.

Another important area is regulatory harmonization. Ammonia is already widely handled as an industrial chemical, but broader adoption as a fuel requires updated frameworks covering fuel standards, safety protocols, bunkering procedures, emissions accounting, and operational guidelines across different regions.

What is encouraging is that governments and industry are now moving from discussion into actual implementation planning.

In Asia particularly, what conditions make certain markets more ready than others to adopt newer energy technologies such as ammonia-based systems?

Asia is likely to play a leading role in ammonia adoption because many countries in the region face a combination of high energy demand, limited domestic renewable resources, and strong industrial decarbonization pressure.

Markets such as Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan are especially proactive because they are energy import-dependent economies looking for scalable pathways to strengthen both energy security and decarbonization.

Japan and Singapore, for example, have limited land availability for large-scale renewable deployment, making imported clean fuels strategically important. South Korea has introduced policy mechanisms such as the Clean Hydrogen Portfolio Standard and the Distributed Energy Act to accelerate hydrogen and ammonia deployment across power generation and industry.

Across the region, governments are increasingly viewing ammonia as part of a broader energy resilience strategy. That combination of policy support, industrial demand, and infrastructure readiness is helping Asia emerge as one of the most active markets for ammonia-based energy systems.

Looking ahead, what should investors, industrial stakeholders, and startup ecosystems watch for as signs that next-generation climate energy technologies are becoming commercially meaningful?

One important signal is participation from established industrial players. When major shipbuilders, utilities, infrastructure developers, or engineering firms begin incorporating new energy technologies into their long-term product and investment strategies, it reflects growing confidence in commercial viability.

Another other key indicator is ecosystem development. In energy, no technology succeeds alone. Commercial adoption depends on fuel supply, infrastructure, financing, regulation, and customer demand developing together.

That is starting to happen now in areas like distributed power and maritime, which is why we believe the market is entering a much more practical phase.

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