Switzerland-based Atlas Agro Holding AG, which is developing the Pacific Green Fertilizer Project in Richland, Wash. (GM March 31, p. 1), has been selected to begin award negotiations as part of the US Department of Energy’s (OCED) development of the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub (GM Oct. 13, p. 1).
The Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub is estimated to receive up to $1 billion in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. In total, seven Hydrogen Hubs will receive $7 billion.
The company said the selection enables it to enter award negotiations with OCED and work in partnership to establish the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub. It said OCED funding will support Atlas Agro’s participation in the Hydrogen Hub through the advancement of planning, detailed design, environmental permitting, and procurement of long-lead equipment.
The Hubs are designed to kickstart a national network of clean hydrogen producers, consumers, and connective infrastructure while supporting the production, storage, delivery, and end-use of clean hydrogen. They are to accelerate the commercial-scale deployment of clean hydrogen, helping generate clean, dispatchable power, create a new form of energy storage, and decarbonize heavy industry and transportation.
Atlas Agro said the Pacific Green project will be a game changer and will boost domestic nitrogen production, slash carbon emissions, protect land and water, and support green hydrogen deployment at scale.
Pacific Green’s development plan is for a 1 million square foot, fully renewable hydrogen production facility. The facility is expected to have the capacity to produce 650,000 mt/y of calcium ammonium nitrate. The complex will include units for ammonia, nitric acid, ammonium nitrate, calcium ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate, electrolyzers, and air separation.
The capital expenditure is put at $1.2 billion and the company expects the facility to employ 160. The project’s timeline is for groundbreaking in 2024, with the plant to be operational in 2026-2027. The company has inked a real estate purchase and sale agreement with the Port of Benton.
“We can focus on building new, green nitrate assets in the optimal locations,” the company says on its website. “We will build our factories in the market, near the farmer, providing security of supply and avoiding the traditional inter-continental shipping of fertilizer with an associated time, cost, and carbon emissions.”
Pacific Green said by 2030 it will build and license a number of renewable fertilizer plants, build a new generation of fertilizer distribution in attractive markets, and leverage its position as a large, low-cost hydrogen producer to help incubate hydrogen businesses.
The plant will be the first of a series that Atlas Agro plans to build in multiple regions across the world. Atlas Agro is also planning an $850 million, 500,000 mt/y green nitrogen plant in Brazil and plans to eventually build 7-9 plants in the country (GM May 12, p. 1). It is also considering building a plant in Paraguay.
In July, Atlas Agro announced that Sydney-based financial services firm Macquarie Asset Management would invest $325 million in the company and related projects via the Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions fund.