OCI NV, Amsterdam, announced Nov. 29 that its wholly-owned Iowa Fertilizer Co. facility in Wever, Iowa, has entered into an agreement with Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC, Dallas, to provide CO2 transportation and storage services on its carbon capture and storage (CCS) system, the Heartland Greenway. The move will allow the plant to produce blue ammonia. Ammonia capacity at the facility is approximately 880,000 mt/y.
“We are excited to partner with Navigator on this project, which allows for an effective and quick solution to reduce our CO2 footprint and offer low carbon products to our customers across the value chain from our world-scale facility in Iowa,” said Ahmed El-Hoshy, OCI CEO. “We are monitoring the ongoing discussions in Congress around enhancements to the 45Q program to support the project economics and potentially open the opportunity to widen the scope of this project to capture more CO2.
“This agreement follows the announcement earlier this year that we have the ability to produce up to 365,000 mt/y of blue ammonia at OCI Beaumont in Texas, and blue and green ammonia projects in Abu Dhabi and Egypt, and marks another milestone towards achieving our sustainability goals and progressing towards a greener future,” he continued.
Navigator will provide CO2 transportation and storage services under a long-term agreement for up to 1.13 million mt/y of CO2, equivalent to the carbon emissions of approximately 245,000 vehicles driven annually. The project will have two phases, with the first focused on process gas representing approximately 500,000 mt/y of CO2, and the second for the balance, subject to regulatory enhancements of the 45Q program to make installation of the required post-combustion capture equipment economically feasible.
When the new infrastructure is installed, the project has the capability to capture and store materially all of the CO2 emissions from the fertilizer plant. Start of operations for the first phase is expected at the end of 2024.
The project is backed by BlackRock’s Global Energy & Power Infrastructure Fund III, which invests in essential, long-term infrastructure assets, and is commercially anchored by Valero.
Navigator said that once fully expanded, the Heartland Greenway will be able to capture and sequester 15 million mt/y of CO2 annually, which, according to EPA estimates, is equivalent to eliminating the annual carbon footprint of the Des Moines metro area three times over.
Navigator received approval in October from its Board of Directors to proceed with the Heartland Greenway. It has commenced the process to obtain all the necessary permits to construct the project and start initial system commissioning during late 2024 and into early 2025.
Navigator CO₂ Ventures is a company developed and managed by the Navigator Energy Services management team. The company said it has safely constructed and operated over 1,000 miles of midstream infrastructure since being founded in 2012.