Jupiter Ionics has been shortlisted in the Governor of Victoria Startup Awards, celebrating the State’s trailblazers to its $91bn start-up sector.

The Melbourne-based start-up was ranked in the Top 30 for the Best Newcomer category for its breakthrough work on green ammonia technology.

Ammonia is widely used as fertiliser and is essential in the global food system, but current technology typically generates around two tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) for every tonne of ammonia produced.

Jupiter Ionics’ technology, exclusively licensed from Monash University, uses renewable electricity, air, and water to make ammonia with potentially zero carbon emissions.

Dr Charlie Day, Jupiter Ionics CEO, said, “We’re passionate about Australia’s potential to be a clean energy superpower and our company is playing its role in that narrative by ensuring Victoria is nurturing the technologies that are making it happen.”

Green Ammonia is expected to have a range of uses in a low-carbon future, including as a significant clean energy source for replacing fossil fuels. Ammonia-powered trains and ships are already in development.

Producing ammonia using an electrical current derived from renewable sources would yield ‘large reductions in carbon emissions’, according a a profile article on Jupiter Ionics in Nature.

In a lithium-mediated system, a phosphorous-based proton shuttle ferries protons formed at the anode to the cathode, in electrolyte rich in hydrogen and nitrogen, and reactions in nitrogen, lithium ions and protons produce ammonia.

But scaling up the technology, while demonstrating stability and longevity, will be key challenges, the article states.