Cutting Through Oil? Amogy Says: Put Some Ammonia on It

For a golden stretch of the 20th century, petroleum was the wonder cure. It solved the whale oil crisis, freed us from the limits of horse-based transport, filled our vehicles with clean power and our homes with cheap light.

“Sweet as a honeybee.” The Four Tops had it right in 1965 in The Same Old Song, and we’ve been humming it ever since — like The Song That Never Ends. But like the honeybee stings, petroleum left us with something else: polluted skies, rising seas, a climate lurching out of balance. And so when the lyrics say, “Now it’s the same old song, but with a different meaning since you been gone,” we know what’s gone — clean skies, secure oceans, and the stable climate we once took for granted.

Yet we need a fix not just for one thing. Petroleum is directly or indirectly in everything. Which means we need something you can spray on everything, fix everything. Like Windex in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Could it be exactly that — Windex? Or rather, its active ingredient, ammonia. Pungent, familiar, hidden in plain sight. Farmers and port workers know it. Chemists have long contemplated it. But only now, with companies like Amogy, are we cracking its hidden hydrogen to fuel ships, trucks, and maybe even data centers. Could this smelly old industrial standby be the fresh track that breaks us out of the loop?

Singapore Stakes Its Claim

The most recent waypoint on this journey came September 23, when Amogy signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). For Singapore, it’s a strategic bet. The nation has committed itself to the Green Plan 2030 and its National Hydrogen Strategy. It sits at the heart of global shipping and has a surging data center industry that consumes power 24/7.

The MOU focuses on proving ammonia-to-power where it matters most: Jurong Island’s industrial complex and Singapore’s power-hungry infrastructure. It’s not just about hardware; it’s about the ecosystem of safety standards, digital integration, workforce training, and industrial scale-up. “We’re excited to demonstrate ammonia-powered technology in Singapore,” said Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo, pointing to the twin challenges of heavy industry and data centers. A*STAR brings expertise in standards, cost and sustainability assessments, and advanced catalysis — tools critical for making ammonia-to-power a reality at scale.

As Professor Lim Keng Hui, Assistant Chief Executive of A*STAR’s Science and Engineering Research Council, noted: by advancing ammonia for power generation and bunkering, Singapore strengthens its position as a regional hub for low-carbon innovation.

The Amogy Trick

At the heart of Amogy’s mission is a deceptively simple process. Liquid ammonia goes into a compact reactor, where Amogy’s patented catalyst cracks it into hydrogen and nitrogen. The hydrogen flows to a fuel cell or hydrogen engine, producing high-performance electricity with zero carbon emissions.

The novelty lies in the details: a low-ruthenium catalyst chosen by partners like JGC, cracking ammonia efficiently at lower temperatures and with higher durability. That reduces heat demand and maintenance, and makes the system viable in places where uptime matters more than anything — ships, trucks, power plants, and yes, data centers.

It’s not only the catalyst that matters, but the system integration. Amogy’s reactors are compact and modular, designed for onboard use in vehicles and vessels where space is at a premium. Their efficiency opens the door for distributed deployment: think workboats, trucks, or offshore platforms generating clean power directly at the point of use. Unlike centralized hydrogen plants, this approach localizes risk and simplifies logistics. Amogy also invests in advanced digital controls to ensure stable operation under variable loads — a crucial step in proving that ammonia power can be both flexible and safe. This marriage of chemistry, engineering, and software is what moves ammonia from lab curiosity to commercial tool.

Why Ammonia, Why Now

It’s not just chemistry; it’s logistics. Ammonia has three killer advantages:

1. Energy Density – about 2.7 times greater than liquid hydrogen, enabling heavy-duty vehicles and vessels to travel further and faster without impossible weight penalties.
2. Infrastructure and Familiarity – ammonia is the world’s second most produced chemical, with over 150 ports already capable of storing and handling it. Farmers, regulators, and shippers all know it.
3. Global Impact – decarbonizing heavy-duty transport could cut global GHG emissions by up to 10% by 2040.

Where battery electrification struggles, ammonia could thrive. Where cryogenic hydrogen is too finicky, ammonia slips in as the practical carrier.

Ports of Call: Milestones and Partnerships

Amogy has built credibility with a string of firsts:

• Early Demonstrations – the first emission-free ammonia-powered drone (2021), followed by a tractor and semi-truck.
• The NH₃ Kraken – the world’s first ammonia-powered vessel, launched September 2024, running on green ammonia with Amogy’s proprietary power system.
• Funding – $20 million Series A (2021), followed by a $150 million Series B led by SK Innovation with investments from Amazon’s Climate Pledge Fund, Aramco Ventures, and Mitsubishi.
• Global Expansion – a new office in Pangyo, South Korea (2025) to deepen ties with Asia’s hydrogen ecosystem.

And crucially, partnerships:

• JGC (April 2025) – adopting Amogy’s low-ruthenium catalyst for Japan’s hydrogen strategy.
• KBR (September 2025) – evaluating catalysts for offshore hydrogen production platforms.
• Hanwha Ocean & Hanwha Aerospace (2024) – integrating ammonia power with hydrogen fuel cell propulsion.
• Infinium (2024) – exploring eFuels production using Amogy’s cracking technology.
• Mitsubishi & SK Innovation (2023) – accelerating ammonia adoption in East Asia.
• HD KSOE EcoPhin (2024) – developing vessel electrification systems with integrated ammonia cracking.

Each is a port of call on ammonia’s voyage from concept to commerce.

The Challenges

Amogy’s gambit is bold, but the voyage ahead is hardly smooth sailing. Scaling up from pilots to mass deployment requires more than catalysts and reactors — it demands a supply chain capable of producing and moving vast quantities of clean ammonia. While more than 150 ports worldwide can handle conventional ammonia, scaling green ammoniaproduction to meet future demand requires massive renewable capacity and global investment.

There are also hurdles in partner adoption. Shipbuilders, truck OEMs, and data center operators are cautious by nature, and proof of safety, durability, and cost-effectiveness is critical. Ammonia’s pungent smell is familiar, but so are its risks; regulatory frameworks and public acceptance will need careful cultivation.

Finally, Amogy’s fate depends on critical dependencies — capital to build manufacturing, workforce growth to support deployment, and international partnerships to validate technology in diverse environments. The good news: momentum is building, and with each milestone Amogy ticks off, it gains the credibility to attract the partners, investors, and regulators who can turn a promising technology into a global solution.

Fate, Feedstock, and the Future

Of course, the Sirens are still out there, singing “the same old song.” More oil, more gas, more growth — the chorus we’ve danced to for centuries. But like the Four Tops told us, “Now it’s the same old song, but with a different meaning since you been gone.” And what’s been gone are those clear blue skies, the stable seas, the balance that made petroleum once feel like salvation instead of a curse.

So maybe it’s time to change the track. Not another verse of fossil fuel’s ballad, but something new on the jukebox. Ammonia, of all things — the active ingredient in Windex, the “Problem-Be-Gone” spray of My Big Fat Greek Wedding.Spray it here, spray it there, spray it everywhere. It was a family joke in the movie. Could it be the fix for our planetary family in real life?

Amogy thinks so. By cracking ammonia’s hidden hydrogen, they’re betting this smelly, familiar molecule can become the bridge to clean power for ships, trucks, and data centers. Not a miracle, not a magic spray — but maybe, just maybe, the way to stop replaying the same old song and start dancing to something better.