November 2021 Corporate Update: FuelPositive Releases Operational Costing Model and Timeline for Green Ammonia Production System

Affordability, Practicality and an Aggressive Timeline
Secure FuelPositive’s Place as a Green Ammonia Leader

TORONTO, November 18, 2021 – FuelPositive Corporation (TSX.V: NHHH) (OTCQB: NHHHF) (“FuelPositive” or the “Company”) is issuing the following update to share the status of the Company and its green ammonia technology. FuelPositive is a Canadian growth-stage technology company committed to providing commercially viable and sustainable clean agriculture, energy and chemical solutions to combat climate change. Its lead technology is a modular and scalable system for producing green ammonia for use across a broad spectrum of industries and applications.

“This has been an incredible year for us. In January, we became FuelPositive; in March, we signed the intellectual property acquisition deal for our green ammonia technology with Dr. Ibrahim Dincer and his team; in May, we formed our manufacturing partnership with National Compressed Air to build our prototype systems; in June we filed for our provisional patent and began to build our prototype production systems. Since then we have raised over CA$12 million, which will cover our costs to build a number of green ammonia production systems. We are on track to launch multiple “real world” demonstration pilot projects to showcase our technology throughout 2022. And – maybe the most important achievement of all – we have assembled a team of undisputed experts in their fields – from engineering and manufacturing to robotics and carbon credits,” said Ian Clifford, Chief Executive Officer and Board Chair of FuelPositive. “We are highly efficient, knowledgeable and experienced in every step we need to take along the way to commercialization. We can move much more quickly than our competitors and that is one of our great strengths!”

Critical to the commercialization of the Company’s flagship product – a modular, scalable and portable system for producing green ammonia – is a practical costing model and an aggressive timeline to be first to market. Both the costing model and the timeline will be presented in detail in a corporate update webinar being held today at 2:00 p.m. ET, providing stakeholders with an opportunity to ask questions of Chief Executive Officer Ian Clifford and Chief Operating Officer Nelson Leite.

You can register for the webinar below.

Date: Thursday, November 18, 2021

Time: 2 p.m. ET

RegisterWebinar Registration 

 

Costing Model

Groups around the world are racing to make green ammonia a reality. While there are many parties working on it, attempts until now have been too expensive, putting them out of reach of end users. About 80% of traditional or “grey” ammonia, which is produced using fossil fuels, is used by the agriculture sector, primarily as fertilizer. For green ammonia to be embraced by farmers, it must be affordable. FuelPositive is targeting farming for its first demonstration pilot project.

For the purposes of this costing model, FuelPositive has worked from a case study based on a 1,800-acre farm in Manitoba, Canada, where the average price of grey ammonia in 2021 has been calculated at CA$900 per tonne. (The delivered cost of grey anhydrous ammonia to farmers in Manitoba, Canada doubled from CA$600 to over CA$1,200 per metric tonne in a period of six months this year! That averages at CA$900 per metric tonne delivered to the farm this year.)

The initial FuelPositive systems will produce up to 300 kilos (500 litres) of green anhydrous ammonia per day, which amounts to roughly 100 tonnes per year. This output is suitable for our model farm of 1,800 acres. Larger farms would simply add sufficient production capacity to meet their needs – easily done since FuelPositive’s green ammonia production units are modular, scalable and portable for precisely this purpose.

The cost of production (operating expenditure or OPEX) for the case study has been calculated by FuelPositive at approximately CA$560 per metric tonne (based on a hydrogen production efficiency rate of 65%), compared to the current average cost of CA$900 per metric tonne of grey ammonia. FuelPositive is forecasting under CA$500 per metric tonne for future systems as production efficiencies improve.

Electricity costs for the farm are estimated at CA$0.045 (4.5 cents) per kilowatt hour. This is based on the current cost of electricity paid in Manitoba, which has a carbon-free, sustainable electricity grid. The electricity cost represents the largest component of the overall cost of the green ammonia produced in the FuelPositive system.

This cost does not take into account any additional potential cost reductions related to carbon credits, which could reduce the cost by 50% or more, or the farmer’s own capacity to generate sustainable electricity for the FuelPositive system through solar or wind generation on site. Today the cost of solar power is at parity with the Manitoba grid, however the cost of renewables are predicted to continue to decline.

 

The key takeaways from this case study show that the FuelPositive system provides:

  • Stable, predictable and highly competitive cost of CA$560 per metric tonne, compared with grey anhydrous ammonia for which the average cost this year is CA$900 per metric tonne.
  • Independence from the wildly fluctuating supply chain that exists today for grey anhydrous ammonia.
  • On-site production and utilization of a truly sustainable, carbon-free and green form of anhydrous ammonia.
  • The potential for farmers to not only utilize their own source of green anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer, but to branch out further and have their own source of combustion fuel to replace fossil fuels in grain drying and internal combustion engine equipment, such as tractors and combines.

 

Timeline

“We have set an aggressive timeline. We are inspired, in part, by Tesla’s outstanding success with its approach to manufacturing and product development. With a product not quite as complex to manufacture or as regulated as an electric car, FuelPositive fully intends to follow Tesla’s lead and set a new standard for our industry,” said Nelson Leite, who has supplied Tesla in the past. “We are also applying aspects of the Toyota Production System (TPS), lean manufacturing principles, life cycle analysis and social responsibility policies, eliminating waste in pursuit of the most efficient and most sustainable methods of manufacturing.”

The diverse team at FuelPositive is developing multiple new technologies in parallel, and takes into account manufacturing and servicing considerations at the time of design and initial assembly. FuelPositive began to build its first full-sized prototype system in June, immediately after filing for its provisional patent on its unique convertor technology. The building of the second and third prototypes is scheduled to begin before the end of 2021, applying a batch-style approach to manufacturing.

By the end of March, 2022, the team will be validating the purity of the green ammonia produced by the first prototype system, as well as the OPEX numbers. Pre-orders will begin at that point. The first pilot system will be ready to deploy in the summer of 2022. The second and third systems will deploy later in 2022. We will also house one system in our facility for further development, monitoring and demonstration.

As batch sizes increase, we expect serial manufacturing (assembly line-style) will begin in 2023.

“What we hope people will take away from today’s Corporate Update is that FuelPositive has a unique green ammonia technology and approach that will fill a void where there is desperate need for clean agriculture and energy solutions – and that our product is affordable and practical and about to be available for “real world” applications in the very near future – well ahead of any other scalable and modular green ammonia technology that we are aware of. We also want people to know that as time goes by, we expect there will be cost reductions that will work to the advantage of our customers,” said Nelson Leite. “We are at a point now where we are comfortable with our forecasts. If we have any significant delays or changes, we will communicate that and explain what we are doing about it.”

“FuelPositive’s technology and approach makes producing green ammonia economical, and with room for significant continuous improvements as the cost reduction curve is realized and carbon credits and other potential incentives are incorporated.  FuelPositive’s decentralized, in situ model turns the ammonia industry on its head, dramatically reducing the dependency on massive refineries and unreliable, wildly fluctuating supply chains. End users will make what they need, where they need it, with a steady cost and supply – and all of this without greenhouse gas emissions,” added Clifford.

 

About FuelPositive

FuelPositive is a Canadian growth-stage technology company committed to providing commercially viable and sustainable “cradle to cradle” clean technology solutions, including green ammonia (NH3), for use across a broad spectrum of industries and applications.

By focusing on technologies that are clean and economically advantageous/realizable, the Company aims to change the course of climate change through practical solutions that can be implemented now.

The Company’s core technology, a modular and scalable green ammonia system, takes air, water and sustainable electricity and synthesizes it into a non-polluting chemical for multiple applications, including fertilizer for farming, fuel for internal combustion engines and a solution for grid storage. Green ammonia is being considered as a replacement for fossil fuels and as a key enabler of the hydrogen economy.

The company’s most recent corporate update, presented in September, can be found here.

 

Cautionary Statement

Trading in the securities of the Company should be considered highly speculative. No stock exchange, securities commission or other regulatory authority has approved or disapproved the information contained herein. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

 

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain “forward-looking information” and “forward-looking statements” (collectively, “forward-looking statements”) that are based on expectations, estimates and projections as at the date of this news release. The information in this release about future plans and objectives of the Company, including the expected expenditures of the proceeds of the private placement, are forward-looking statements.

These forward-looking statements are based on assumptions and estimates of management of the Company at the time they were made and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable by the Company as of the time of such statements, are inherently subject to significant business, economic and competitive uncertainties and contingencies. These estimates and assumptions may prove to be incorrect.

Many of these uncertainties and contingencies can directly or indirectly affect, and could cause, actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements.

Forward-looking information is provided for the purpose of providing information about management’s expectations and plans relating to the future. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information or to explain any material difference between subsequent actual events and such forward-looking information, except to the extent required by applicable law.

 

For Media or Investor enquiries, please contact:

Mr. Ian Clifford
Chief Executive Officer
mailbox1@fuelpositive.com

Investor Relations (United States)
RBMG – RB Milestone Group LLC
Trevor Brucato, Managing Director
fuelpositive@rbmilestone.com
www.rbmilestone.com

FuelPositive