ToC Pt 3. Of unicorns and gigacorns. Nium's 3 phase plan for cleaning up.... and getting paid.
Our Route to Market
If flexible, scalable local clean ammonia production is gold, our product, novel nano-catalysts and minion reactors, are the picks and shovels that enable our hydrogen partners to break ground with clean ammonia production and scale up fast.
In the beginning we sell units that show off our technology while giving renewable energy companies a low barrier to entry to local ammonia production a clean ammonia market. We demonstrate capability at successive scales fast. From 2027 we will evolve to larger scale projects, partnering with project developers. From there we have the option of an adjacent licence / royalty model to help the incumbent grey ammonia market decarbonise.?
Unlike the competition who are trying to scale down, modify, electrify or use chemical methods to replace Haber-Bosch we play to the strengths of physical catalysis, flexible hydrogen inputs and begin at the hydrogen end of the spectrum.?
We are working with clean hydrogen producers, in most cases they have agreed an ammonia offtake as fertiliser. This keeps it simple for us, allowing us to focus on delivery of our cost effective technology without concerns around either feedstock or offtake. We are the plug in the middle.?
We are not the ammonia supply chain. We are not reliant on specific hydrogen technologies.? We are a more powerful, less energy hungry processor, allowing for ammonia synthesis at a fraction of the price and pollution of traditional methods. We offer carbon free, flexibility and scalability in a dirty industry that for 100 years has been starved of both.?
We have agreements with key players in the energy and ammonia industries to understand how we could help them decarbonise at massive scale. We are a couple of years away from being able to produce tonnes then hundreds of tonnes of catalyst at sufficient quantities to fill these orders. In the meantime we deliver tonnes, then tens of tonnes, to demonstrate capability at successive scales.?
Summary of Nium’s business models, plant capacity and deployment plan
Source: Nium
The catalyst opens the door to modular, scalable Clean Ammonia On Demand. The 1 tonne per day ‘Mighty Minion’ reactor is the modular starting point for all our work. Our 7,500 square foot nanosphere lets us demonstrate, build and test our first reactors and show capability at scale ourselves. Thereafter we scale up as fast as possible, taking on bigger and more impactful projects, while benefiting from economies of scale as we grow and learn.?
Fortunately the flexibility of our catalyst, commercial traction, and the experience of our team means we will deliver revenue-generating pilots as early as 2026. A modular and flexible system that creates a clean market while decarbonising a dirty one.?
As always, we will be led by our mission to eliminate emissions.? We believe that over the medium- to long-term, the ability to demonstrate real-world emissions reduction at successive scales is the path to both significant value and massive climate impact.?
Intellectual Property?
We filed our first patents in 2022, due to be granted Feb 25. And we have prepared for further patents around the world. While we believe we have sufficient traction in the market for a modular model we also have interest from industry incumbents looking to use the catalyst in existing plants. This up-front fee and royalty model is how typical catalyst companies operate and where 10-20 year royalty structures under strict non-disclosure paperwork is typical. We are currently in an exploratory agreement with a major industry player in this space to see if we may be able to partner from 2027 onward to help incumbents move away from Haber-Bosch.?
Our Intellectual Property journey since 2022
Source: Nium
Phase 1. De-risking: The Nanosphere?
In the early days of Nium we established our business by collaborating with government and university partners. We were a climate start-up; unlimited ambition, unlimited purpose,? limited funds, limited access. We continue to be very grateful for all the help and support we received in the early days. Without them, there would be no Nium.
The founders at the Cavendish Laboratory in the University of Cambridge for an early prototype experiment in 2022
Nevertheless, governments are defined by politics. Academic institutions are sometimes bureaucratic.? Politics and bureaucracy cost time.? These bodies don’t exist for profit. They don’t move at pace.?
Our mission as a company is to eliminate emissions. In the context of climate change, time is a luxury we don't have. Profitability is the number one motive that will move people to decarbonise quickly. The astonishing rise of renewables has made this plain. In short. Money talks. Time is money.?
In our context that meant bringing everything we could into our control, then working relentlessly to drive down the levelized cost of clean ammonia.?
The Nium founders rapidly realised that if we wanted to move fast and fix things at the pace necessary to deal with climate change, we would need to bring both the nanocatalyst production and the ammonia supply chain to us.?
We would need to prove the new ammonia reality around our catalysts. We would need to fit-out a full facility with hydrogen and nitrogen piping. To recreate industrial conditions as best we can.? A bank of electrolysers,? a nitrogen compressor and venting alongside relevant safety systems and permitting.? We would need to fit out a 7500 ft warehouse, a space that has affectionately become known as the Nanosphere.?
Fortunately our investors at Carbon13, Agfunder and DCVC understood our vision.Then, the British and Australian governments agreed. Then Octopus Ventures, The BMW Foundation, H2UB, The Undaunted program at Imperial College, The University of Cambridge Judge Business School, QBE AcceliCITY, Global Incubator Programme Agri-Tech, and Rootcamp joined us too.?
Most people told us this was not possible.? The few that would, quoted us between 2-5 years to build what we were planning. We completed the build in 7 months.?
We then installed and calibrated the gas chromatography and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy equipment, while hiring the best talent in nanocatalysis, materials science and chemical engineering to scale catalyst production fast and build a proof of concept.
Insert description: The Mark 1.?
Source: Nium
Our Research Scientists work on Nium’s technology
Source: Nium
Credit: Alex Wilkinson Media and ERA.
The Mark ii: Our state-of-the art facility and technology includes process simulation tools for our minion reactors
Source: Nium
We use clean electrolysis hydrogen at our facility to mirror real world applications as closely as possible
Source: Nium
Nium’s team working at our basecamp?
Source: Nium
Credit: Alex Wilkinson Media and ERA.
Nium’s Founder and the broader team in our basecamp
Source: Nium
We completed a facility with state-of-the art labs in 7 months
Source: Nium
Nium’s lab: we also have research facilities at our Nanosphere outside Oxford and at Harwell, next door to the UK synchrotron where our technical breakthrough on the catalyst was first made.?
Source: Nium
Our CSO and Research Scientists deep at work
Source: Nium
The Nium team welcoming the arrival of our Mark 2 reactor
Source: Nium
Nium’s engineering team at our basecamp
Source: Nium
Credit: Alex Wilkinson Media and ERA.
Our CEO presents the Mighty Minion at Royal Society Chemistry at Burlington House??
Source: Nium
Phase 2. Advancing ammonia production
Our previous and current minion reactors?
Source: Nium
We are currently in the second generation of minion reactor prototypes, which we call the Mark II. Three prototypes are now running with these catalysts at our lab outside Oxford. We have installed electrolysers that take hydrogen from water, and air separators that take nitrogen from air.? The beginning of a new era of cleaner, flexible, and cost effective ammonia production.?
Our Lead Process Engineer and CTO work on our prototype minion reactor
Source: Nium
In July 2024, we achieved the milestone of producing clean ammonia with Nitrogen from air and Hydrogen from water electrolysis in this system. From here we are preparing to deploy our system on partner sites.?
Phase 3 Deployment.?
Simple, small, and scalable
It is, overall, a relatively simple setup. All the balance of plant systems (nitrogen generation, refrigeration) use mature, off-the-shelf technologies. Our modular configuration is novel in the flexibility it provides, but the array of units still works just like any other catalytic reactor in countless facilities around the world.
Over the medium term, a scaled up version of this system will be able to take advantage of greater economies of scale. Once we have established where the cheapest clean hydrogen in the world is being made through small scale, cost- effective, rapid deployments, we will be able to double down in areas that have demonstrated the lowest levelised cost of ammonia.?
Whether 10tpd or 200tpd, for the first time, these systems are designed around intermittency of renewable energy sources, and hydrogen feedstocks. They can be deployed across various regions in diverse environments, conditions and applications.?
And it allows us one of our greatest strengths: to seek renewables and hydrogen, wherever they are most accessible.
For example, the best places to make green electrons are coastal deserts with a diurnal profile: reliably strong sun during the day and heavy wind at night. Our system allows us to deploy in these locations and take advantage of the cheapest available renewable energy.
So we know we have the patent pending technology to make clean ammonia on demand.?
But how do we make it cost effectively??
We begin at sites where energy is wasted or hydrogen is made cheaply; curtailed wind, stranded solar, hydropowered clean hydrogen locations looking for an offtaker. These are our hunting grounds. We’ve started here with a small-scale delivery, our minion modularity allowing for rapid scale-up and quick deployment. But at around the 60 tonne per day (TPD) level we will need to develop larger scale projects beyond the pilot scales and focus increasingly on levelized cost for export.?
That’s the part of our plan that we’ll explore next.?
How We Make Money.
Source: Nium
2024: Our Beachhead: The Minion down under.?
Project Koala is an international collaboration between Nium, HydGene Renewables (Sydney, Australia), and agribusiness Tait Pastoral (New South Wales, Australia). Supported by ￡1 million in funding from Innovate UK and the Australian Government, this project has a clear mission:
To create a circular, decentralised, on-farm system for producing low-carbon renewable hydrogen from straw residue and converting it into ammonia fertiliser.
We are deploying a small scale pilot plant that integrates Nium’s Mighty Minion green ammonia reactors with HydGene’s low-carbon hydrogen production technology.?
Agricultural biomass is the feedstock. Hydrogen to Clean Ammonia is the pathway.? The system will process Tait Pastoral’s straw waste, efficiently converting it from waste to hydrogen and then to ammonia, which can be returned to the farm as fertiliser.
The potential future impact is enormous. By establishing 1-10 tonne/day bio-hydrogen production systems in regional hubs shared among local farms, we estimate that Australia’s excess straw (around 35 megatonnes per year) could produce 1 megatonne of renewable hydrogen, valued at approximately ￡1.6 billion.?
Australia has a large agricultural industry, is a significant ammonia and urea importer. It has invested heavily in hydrogen, has abundant renewable energy and plans to export hydrogen as ammonia in Asia. It was the perfect place for us to pilot clean ammonia on demand.?
And why is it called Project Koala? At Nium, we name our projects after animals affected by climate change, reminding us of our mission to eliminate emissions. In pursuit of a purpose of a better planet for future generations.
Stuart Tait at Tait Farm, Mandurama, NSW, Australia
Source: Tait Pastoral
2025 1-10 ton - the route to commercialisation.?
Through inbound enquiries and partner referrals we have seen strong market demand from around the world.?
Signed Offtake LOIs: $57M
10 Pilot Opportunities
Qualified Pipeline Opportunity: $120M
Crunching the numbers from our CRM tells us an interesting story.?
This data includes traditional users of ammonia looking to decarbonise: Chemical & Fertiliser companies making up almost a third of all enquiries in our database.?
This is what we expected. However, the majority of enquiries are from new entrants to the ammonia market.? These are well capitalised companies with renewable and hydrogen assets, clear off-takes and defined targets but no ready way of producing ammonia.?
Over 10% of enquiries are from Oil and Gas. Almost half are from Renewable Energy companies and Hydrogen facilities.?
These are not small companies - of 137 leads, 43 have over $1Bn in revenue. 33 have over $10Bn and 15 have over $50Bn
The value proposition to these renewable energy and green hydrogen players is simple.?
How can we at Nium take advantage of this evolution of ammonia??
In the beginning we are units that show off our technology while giving renewable energy and hydrogen companies a low barrier to entry to a stable and growing market.
10-100 ton?
Once proven at a smaller scale we can partner with project developers at partner sites.?
Thereafter we have further projects we are reviewing in Spain, Portugal, Indonesia, The UAE, The United States, India, Ireland and the UK. Our guiding principles are co-locate at sites where hydrogen feedstock is readily available, scale rapidly and double down on those projects where we can generate the lowest levelized cost of ammonia.??
100 ton and beyond.??
Ultimately Nium's mission is to eliminate emissions. We go wherever we can have the greatest impact fastest. We have pipelines and partnerships with both agriculture and hydrogen because these two disparate industries have never been able to connect in this way before. We begin with smaller scale applications with hydrogen partners scaling up fast at a a new entry point?
While we start with small scale deployments in a decentralised modular model we also have an eye to the (economies of) larger scale and the future. We have signed exploratory agreements under NDA with plant builders and hydrogen partners that look at our technology in context. Now we are working with these partners to understand how we can connect the dots for the energy transition. We are collaborating to decarbonise a dirty industry, cost effectively, at massive scale.?
Diamond Light Source at Harwell Innovation Science Campus, Next door to our R&D centre, where our original breakthrough was first made.?
Copyright: Diamond Light Source
Efficiency is everything.?
The world doesn’t just need local clean ammonia. It needs cost effective ammonia. It needs ammonia with intermittent fuel and seasonal variations in power. It needs it on demand.?
At one end of the spectrum, our vision of the future is project Koala writ large: a decentralised network of ammonia facilities fed with the lowest emissions hydrogen feedstocks at distributed sites.
A decarbonised decentralised and democratised clean ammonia economy. A resilient and collaborative web of regional hydrogen hubs and farmer cooperatives that are best equipped to play an essential part in an agricultural and energy transition, being able to produce and apply ammonia on demand cost effectively. This model enhances global food security while reducing dependence on dirty imports and complex global supply chains.?
Over time, as we demonstrate capability and optimise our technology for larger scale applications we can work with project developers.? At the other end of the spectrum we give an export option to desert engines in the global south to feed the energy and ammonia demand of the global North. We build larger facilities, taking advantage of economies of scale and greater availability of clean hydrogen while helping existing plants use less energy. We produce scalable, flexible solar and wind-powered ammonia when energy is curtailed. An electrified ammonia use-case on sites with stranded energy, a useful bolt-on to ensure not a Watt goes to waste.?
If we want to sever the ties between food and fossil fuels, energy insecurity and geopolitical instability, giving farmers and industry autonomy over ammonia production, we need to make the technology accessible through flexibility and smaller scale facilities.?
Our technology is flexible. Modular plants adapted for different applications and customers. Nium’s system starts small and can scale fast, offering ammonia production from 1-100t per day for smaller scale applications in remote locations, removing dependence on supply chains,? to 100t+ per day for larger facilities and export.?
It is scalable. Its integration with intermittent renewable energy sources, low maintenance, low pressure, user friendliness and high degree of automation are all designed for easy and widespread adoption at small scale to begin with new entrants to the market and larger scale applications as more renewable hydrogen becomes available.??
It is also cost effective. The modular design of Nium’s system allows for easy replication and scaling up, crucial for widespread adoption and industrial application while meeting environmental and safety standards. We combine cutting edge technology with the means for rapid manufacturing and deployment.?
Overall, through low capex, lighter engineering, competitive Levelised Cost of Ammonia and sound techno-economics, we provide an accessible entry point to clean ammonia and fertiliser production.?
With pilots scheduled and 137 expressions of interest from some of the largest companies across energy, chemical, agriculture and shipping we have learned that there is no shortage of demand for clean ammonia, either as a ‘push’ for clean hydrogen use cases or to a ‘pull’ to help offtakers decarbonise.? Our immediate challenge is rapidly scaling up catalyst production to meet demand.?
Ours is a novel approach. There are currently no competitors in ammonia nanotechnology because of the complexities of ammonia synthesis combined with the atomic precision and custom built instrumentation required for industrial scale nanocatalyst production.??
In the past year we have added a third layer of innovation. While early, this area has yielded promising results. We use a supercomputer alongside Newtonian and quantum models to accelerate improvements in performance of the catalysts themselves. This has saved on lab time by as much as 90%.? In one of our most promising catalysts we have seen a 9.7x improvement in activity over six months based on this work. This is also a first of a kind in our industry. While our mark two facility has run for 1000 hours without a drop off in activity - the nano-catalyst is durable.?
This is our moat. The physical barriers and atomic-level precision make it wide, the supercomputer’s work is making it deeper. Nium’s nano-technology and modular system set up are bolstered by three years of careful business, team and culture building with experienced operators. They are joined by veterans of venture capital and industry, a technical and business advisory board, a ‘United Nations’ of government backers, investors, grant makers and supporters. Through our work on the planeteers project? we are also collaborating with researchers and industry professionals around the world. All of us are united around a common mission: eliminate emissions.?
This is our global ammonia army. A team of dedicated people who appreciate the climate potential of a combination of particle accelerators, supercomputers, the meteoric rise of solar, a better use for biomass, a hell of a lot of elbow grease and a very smelly gas.
We see the same vision - it's just related to Hope Spots globally. Lets talk to the team.
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