The state-owned Alaska Gasline Development Corp. (AGDC) on Oct. 4 announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Mitsubishi Corp., TOYO Engineering Corp., and Hilcorp Alaska to assess the potential of utilizing North Slope natural gas to produce blue ammonia in the Cook Inlet region of Southcentral Alaska. The gas would be transported via a long-proposed 807-mile pipeline to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula.
The parties said the carbon dioxide generated from this process is able to be captured and sequestered in secure underground geologic formations, and Alaska’s Cook Inlet basin has been identified by scientists as having world-class carbon sequestration potential. This assessment project will further define Cook Inlet’s sequestration potential and the economics for producing blue ammonia alongside LNG in Alaska.
The parties said the project has the potential to liquefy some 20 million mt/y of LNG for export. Some of that gas could be used for blue hydrogen and ammonia. AGDC had not responded to inquiries as to how much blue hydrogen and ammonia production is under consideration.
However, in a May presentation, Alaska LNG Project Manager Brad Chastain said that an “existing ammonia plant is well positioned to be the first mover in the market.” Nutrien Ltd. has a long-idled nitrogen plant on the Kenai Peninsula. Nutrien’s legacy company, Agrium Inc., permanently closed the plant in late 2007 (GM Oct. 1, 2007) due to a shortage of natural gas. Nutrien/Agrium has since considered options for bringing the plant back up, including coal gasification, the North Slope pipeline, and new gas discoveries in Cook Inlet, but has kept the complex down.
Back in 2013, plant capacity was put at 1.35 million st/y of urea and 1.1 million st/y of ammonia (GM Nov. 4, 2013). “We are aware of several very early-stage proposals for the supply of affordable natural gas that could allow us to bring our operations on the peninsula back online, and we continue to work closely with the state as these opportunities are developed,” a Nutrien spokesperson told Green Markets.
“We are encouraged by the state’s interest in projects on the peninsula and have maintained our facilities to ensure that they are available for start-up if the conditions arise that will allow for sustainable operations there,” the spokesman continued. “However, we also recognize that these gas projects are still in the early stages of development and cannot offer further comment at this time.”
In addition to Cook Inlet’s carbon sequestration capabilities, the parties factored other unique Alaska advantages into the decision to initiate the ammonia assessment. Round-trip tanker transport from Alaska to key Asian markets is more than 12,000 miles shorter than from the US Gulf Coast, reducing costs and shipping emissions. They also said Alaska has a 45-year record of success exporting LNG to Asia.