Americas News
New Texas Blue Ammonia Project Could Help Meet Future Marine Fuel Demand
A new blue ammonia plant in Texas could help meet future demand for ammonia bunkers, the companies behind the project have said.
Yara Clean Ammonia (Yara) and Enbridge Inc. (Enbridge) recently signed a letter of intent to jointly develop and construct the production facility as equal partners at the Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center (EIEC) near Corpus Christi, Texas.
The proposed facility would produce up to 1.4 million tonnes of blue ammonia per year and use carbon capture to reduce CO2 emissions from the production process by approximately 95%, turning the conventional 'grey' ammonia into 'blue' ammonia in the process.
It the project passes the Front-end Engineering Design (FEED) phase, and receives all the necessary regulatory approvals, total investment is expected to be US$2.6–US$2.9 billion, with production start-up in 2027/2028.
Yara, the world’s largest ammonia distributor, would then contract full offtake from the facility.
“[W]e are working systematically to develop project opportunities in the U.S. and this project will significantly contribute to our strategy of decarbonizing agriculture as well as serving new clean ammonia segments such as shipping fuel, power production and ammonia as a hydrogen carrier,” said Magnus Krogh Ankarstrand, President of Yara Clean Ammonia.
While it still has a number of hurdles to overcome, ammonia is tipped to play a major role as part of the future marine fuel mix.
