Recent startup Clean Hydrogen Works (CHW), Grand Prairie, Texas, a project development company, has announced that it is exploring a plan to build a $7.5 billion large-scale hydrogen-ammonia production and export facility in Ascension Parish in Louisiana.

It would do business as Ascension Clean Energy (ACE), in partnership with Denbury Carbon Solutions – a subsidiary of Denbury Inc., Plano, Texas, and the largest CO2 pipeline operator in the US – and Hafnia, Singapore, a major oil product and chemical tanker company.

The project will include two world-scale ammonia blocks with estimated ammonia production totaling 7.2 million mt/y. Approximately 75% of the planned ammonia production volume is supported by letters of intent for offtake agreements with high-quality purchasers, according to the partners.

The two ammonia blocks are currently projected to start up in a staged approach, with Block 1 production anticipated to commence in 2027. A final investment decision on the project is anticipated in 2024.

The facilities are to be constructed on a 1,700-acre RiverPlex MegaPark site on the West Bank of the Mississippi River in Donaldsonville, La., with ready access for exports.

CHW, the majority shareholder in ACE, was formed in early 2021. It said it was established by an experienced team of project executives from leading global energy companies, with key members involved in a $3 billion gas-to-methanol project in the Pacific Northwest that was finally paused in 2021 due to regulatory uncertainties.

Denbury has a 12-year contract, with extension options, to transport and sequester CO2 captured from the project, which is anticipated to be built less than two miles from Denbury’s existing CO2 pipeline network. Captured CO2 volumes are estimated to be approximately 12 million mt/y.

Denbury expects to capture up to 98% of the CO2, with other technology being explored that could make the project net zero or even CO2negative. Permanent, secure underground storage of the CO2 is anticipated in one or more of Denbury’s sequestration sites located in proximity to Denbury’s CO2 pipeline infrastructure.

Denbury has invested $10 million into the ACE project through an investment in CHW and has committed to invest another $10 million when certain project milestones are achieved.

Hafnia would export the ammonia to emerging energy markets overseas.

The parties said ACE would create 350 new direct jobs, and 1,500 at peak construction. The Louisiana Economic Development (LED) estimates that some 1,122 new indirect jobs would be created. LED said it has prepared a competitive incentive package, which includes its workforce development program, the state’s Industrial Tax Exemption and Quality Jobs program, and a performance-based award of up to $7 million to reimburse ACE for dock infrastructure expenses.