Ammonia does a better job of storing hydrogen than hydrogen itself, in many ways, and it could help clean up some difficult industries that require high-density energy.
Ammonia has two chief advantages over hydrogen as an energy carrier. One is the fact that it's a liquid at ambient temperature and pressure levels, making it a ton easier to store, transport and handle; hydrogen either needs to be heavily compressed to around 700 bar, or else kept cryogenically cooled as a liquid, to just 20.28 K (−252.87 °C; −423.17 °F) – both of these are energy-intensive processes. The second is how much energy it carries: by volume, nearly three times as much as hydrogen gas, and by weight, more than 20 times as much as today's lithium batteries.
It can be produced cleanly, and it can be used as a fuel in many different ways, many of which create zero harmful or climate-relevant emissions. And while it does have certain drawbacks, green ammonia is viewed as a promising clean fuel alternative for industries like shipping, aviation and other applications where batteries and hydrogen gas simply can't carry enough juice to get the job done.
See Also