Maire Tecnimont SpA, Milan, recently announced that its subsidiaries – NextChem, MET Development, and Stamicarbon – have reached an agreement with Greenfield Nitrogen LLC, Garner, Iowa, to develop the first dedicated green ammonia plant in the U.S. Midwest. The 240 mt/d, 83,000 mt/y plant and storage facility would be located near Garner, Iowa, and is expected to save over 166,000 mt/y of CO2 emissions.
“This partnership represents a collaboration of strengths,” said Linda Thrasher, Greenfield Nitrogen President. “As a development partner, Maire Tecnimont and its subsidiaries bring decades of expertise in successfully designing and executing nitrogen projects, as well as creating new technology, including state-of-the-art zero-carbon facilities. Greenfield’s development expertise, operational experience, and market knowledge align well and position both companies to play a critical role in meeting the world’s decarbonization goals.”
“We are intending to break ground in mid-2022,” Thrasher told Green Markets. “We are completing our feasibility study along with the final engineering with Maire Tecnimont and Stamicarbon. Simultaneously, we are securing financing.”
“Given the facility will be located in Iowa, we have access to abundant wind and solar,” she added. “Our site also has the ability to reach agriculture markets, the transportation sector, and industrial users.”
“Our Garner plant and storage facility will leverage both the abundant supply of renewable energy as well as the strong ammonia market,” she said. “What makes this project unique is that we have the ability to build an entirely zero carbon facility and not be encumbered with carbon intense legacy assets.”
“We are very pleased that Greenfield Nitrogen has chosen Maire Tecnimont as their partner of choice for this exciting project,” said Maire Tecnimont CEO Pierroberto Folgiero. “The combination of co-developer, technology provider, and EPC contractor makes Maire Tecnimont a unique player in the green ammonia market, an area that will be vital to industrialize the ongoing energy transition through green hydrogen. …Thanks to Greenfield Nitrogen’s experience and local presence, we expect this first project to pave the way for other green industrial initiatives to come.”
NextChem will start a feasibility study for the project, utilizing renewable energy as feedstock via the intermediate production of green hydrogen. MET Development will assist Greenfield Nitrogen in the development of the project. The companies said the plant will be designed utilizing the best available technologies for the green hydrogen production together with the ammonia technology that will be provided by Stamicarbon, which earlier this year launched its new STAMI Green Ammonia technology.
The project is the first of a series of green ammonia facilities that Greenfield Nitrogen is interested to strategically developing in the U.S. Cornbelt.
This is not Greenfield Nitrogen’s first proposal to build an ammonia plant. In 2018, Greenfield Nitrogen proposed a $220 million, 128,815/st ammonia plant for Garner, Iowa, that would serve a 100-mile radius (GM Feb. 23, 2018). The company sought funding from farmers, individual investors, and agricultural retailers.
Thrasher is a fertilizer industry veteran, having spent a seven-year stint (2004-2011) at The Mosaic Co., where she was Vice President, Public Affairs. She was also with Cargill Inc. for a ten-year span (1994-2004), where she served as Director, Public Policy. She holds a law degree from William Mitchell College of Law and is a native of northern Iowa.