Greening India's Urea: Opportunities for Grid-Connected Ammonia for Costs and Emissions Savings

India aims to be aatma nirbhar, or self-reliant in their economy. This includes producing fertilizers domestically to potentially reduce the import burden of its high natural gas and fertilizer subsidy expenditure. It also aims to achieve net zero emissions by 2070. Low overall emissions for urea fertilizers depends on the production process of green hydrogen that then feeds into ammonia production to convert to urea. Today, low emissions can only be achieved through renewables-based hydrogen production but that comes with huge infrastructure costs. As a developing country with historically low emissions, India does not have the same responsibilities as developed countries to decarbonize at a rapid scale. Although India’s grid is 70% coal-based, grid connection can reduce investment costs and gradually decarbonize domestic fertilizer supply with the grid. Hence, this study explores the question, “What are the opportunities from grid-connected ammonia production to decarbonize urea fertilizers in India?”