The Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) announced on Aug. 3 that, in partnership with Fertiglobe, it has sold its first cargo of blue ammonia to Itochu Corp. in Japan for use in fertilizer production. The company said the sale builds upon recently announced joint efforts to enhance industrial cooperation between the UAE and Japan and support the development of new UAE-Japan blue ammonia supply chains.
Fertiglobe, a 58-42 partnership between OCI NV and ADNOC, will produce blue ammonia at its Fertil plant in the Ruwais Industrial Complex in Abu Dhabi for delivery to ADNOC’s customers in Japan. ADNOC said the shipments were sold at an attractive premium to gray ammonia and underscore the favorable economics for blue ammonia as an emerging source of low-carbon energy. It said they represent the first production milestone of a planned scale-up of blue ammonia production capabilities in Abu Dhabi, which is expected to include a low-cost debottlenecking program at Fertil.
While the ammonia Fertil produces is typically considered as “gray” ammonia, the plant will be fitted with CO2 liquefaction units, and CO2 will be transferred to – and reinjected into – underground reservoirs by the ADNOC Al Reyadah carbon capture and storage plant to facilitate the production of blue ammonia.
The Al Reyadah facility is the first commercial-scale carbon capture plant in the Middle East, and the world’s first commercial facility to capture CO2 from the iron and steel industry. The CO2 is subsequently used in ADNOC Onshore’s Rumaitha and Bab fields, where it is stored underground. Each year, Al Reyadah captures up to 800,000 mt of CO2 from local UAE steel production.
In addition, it was announced in June that Fertiglobe will join ADNOC and ADQ as a partner in a new world-scale 1 million mt/y blue ammonia project at Ta’ziz in Ruwais, subject to regulatory approvals (GM June 25, p. 33). The design contract for this project has already been awarded, with a final investment decision for the project expected in 2022, and start-up targeted for 2025.