Ammonia producer CF Industries Holdings Inc., Deerfield, Ill., and trading firm Mitsui & Co Inc., Tokyo, announced on Aug. 9 the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding that will guide the companies in a joint exploration of the development of blue ammonia projects in the U.S. Areas of study include establishing blue ammonia supply and supply chain infrastructure, CO2transportation and storage, expected environmental impacts, and blue ammonia economics and marketing opportunities in Japan and in other countries.
“As countries and industries continue to develop plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions, there is broad interest in blue and green hydrogen and ammonia to help meet the world’s clean energy needs,” said Tony Will, CF President and CEO. “CF Industries and Mitsui share a belief that blue ammonia will play a critical role in accelerating the world’s transition to clean energy and that demand for blue ammonia will grow meaningfully. We are pleased to collaborate with Mitsui and leverage the world-class expertise of both companies to explore the development of blue ammonia capacity in the United States to meet this expected demand.”
In its Aug. 10 earnings call, CF also updated and outlined its near-term clean ammonia plans. Will said that projects the company has announced so far are likely to cost below $400 million spread over the next two or three years. “And based on the increased margin and cash flow that we are seeing from operations, that’s easily taken care of just based on normal spending levels.”
CF’s planned green hydrogen/ammonia project announced in 2020 for Donaldsonville, La. (GM Oct. 30, 2020), will be in the range of $100 million. This initial project would produce 20,000 st/y of green ammonia. Will said the dehydration and compression systems that the company is looking at for CO2 at Donaldsonville would be in the range of about $200 million and should be able to provide CF with about 1 million st/y of blue ammonia.
“And we are also looking at potentially a similar dehydration and compression unit in Yazoo City, Miss., which should be able to provide use with another 250,000-300,000 st/y of blue ammonia. And that would probably be in the $70-$80 million range,” he added.
Will said that blue/green ammonia are going to be in short supply relative to the demand that is coming. “So that suggests that it’s got to get built. And if you think about who the best ammonia operators are in the world with the largest network and where there ought to be significant scale advantages, it’s us.”
CF also listed its other clean initiatives, including participation in the Joint Study Framework established by Itochu Corp. to verify and study common issues regarding the use of ammonia as a maritime fuel.
In April 2021, CF signed an engineering and procurement contract with Thyssenkrupp to supply a 20 megawatt alkaline water electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen at Donaldsonville (GM April 23, p. 1). Construction is to begin in second-half 2021, with completion in 2023. CF said it would be the largest of its kind in North America.
CF said the U.K. government is expected in October to select at least two carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) clusters to move into an operational phase by 2026. CF said both of its manufacturing complexes are under consideration.
In addition, CF said that from Oct. 1, 2021, moving forward, 100 percent of electricity purchases for U.K. manufacturing complexes will be from renewable resources, compared to 23 percent currently. CF said this will bring company-wide electricity purchases from renewable resources to 38 percent versus 22 percent based on CF Industries’ electricity purchases across its network in 2020.
CF has established goals for net zero carbon emissions by 2050, with a 25 percent reduction in emissions intensity by 2030.