Dutch OCI says Texas blue ammonia plant under construction
SUMMARY
Project will leverage nearby blue hydrogen production.
By Dale LunanPOSTED IN:
Dutch fertiliser manufacture OCI NV said December 7 construction is now underway at its blue ammonia project in Texas, which when completed in 2025 will produce 1.1mn metric tons/year of ammonia and capture and sequester 1.7mn mt/yr of CO2.
The project, estimated at just under $1bn, received its final Texas air permit on December 1.
The plant is being built adjacent to OCI’s existing integrated 1.4mn mt/yr methanol-ammonia production facility near Beaumont and a 1.8mn mt/yr methanol facility, Natgasoline, in which OCI is a 50% joint venture partner.
OCI will upgrade “over-the-fence” blue hydrogen to produce blue ammonia, where over 95% of carbon emissions will be captured and sequestered. This allows OCI to materially reduce the carbon intensity of its products for downstream customers along the value chain, resulting in carbon footprint reductions across a wide range of industries including transportation, power, manufacturing and agriculture.
“The potential for clean ammonia to solve many of our global problems has become increasingly clear,” OCI CEO Ahmed El-Hoshy said. “It is not only an essential fertilizer that ensures food security for over 4 billion people, (but) low-carbon ammonia is a clean fuel that provides an ideal solution available today for hard-to-abate sectors such as power and shipping.”
The project has also been designed to transition from blue to green ammonia production as green hydrogen becomes available at larger scale.
