LSB will supply up to 150,000 tons per year of low-carbon ammonium nitrate solution (ANS) to Freeport Minerals Corporation from 2025, for use in Freeport’s USA copper mining operations. The ANS will be manufactured from low-carbon ammonia produced at LSB’s El Dorado plant.
LSB Industries, Vopak Moda, INPEX and Air Liquide will collaborate on the pre-FEED stage for a new, mega-scale, CCS-based ammonia project to be located on the Houston Ship Channel. From 2027, the new plant will produce over 1.1 million tonnes of ammonia per year.
The pair will join forces to promote the adoption of low-carbon ammonia fuel in the maritime sector, with an initial focus on US inland waterways transportation. Amogy has also signed a new agreement to explore the potential retrofit of vessels in Skansi’s offshore service supply fleet with its ammonia-to-power technology system.
In our January episode of Ammonia Project Features, we explored the current commercial status of solid oxide electrolysis, and its potential to be integrated with ammonia production. Rick Beuttel (Bloom Energy) and Jakob Krummenacher (LSB industries) also discussed the utilization of the technology in a new decarbonization project at LSB’s ammonia plant in Pryor, Oklahoma.
Electrolysis-based ammonia production peaked worldwide around 1970, before the economies of scale and cheap gas feedstock led to its decline. With decarbonization and climate-neutral industrial processes now a critical priority, electrolysis-based ammonia production has re-emerged as a long-term solution. From a base of 10,000 tonnes per year worldwide production in 2020, as much as 100 million tonnes per year of electrolysis-based ammonia could be produced by the end of this decade, driven by a dramatic roll-out of renewable energy generation and installed electrolyzer capacity.
Meet LSB Industries and Bloom Energy, who are developing a dual-technology electrolysis project to feed ammonia production at LSB's existing plant in Oklahoma.
LSB Industries will partner with thyssenkrupp and Bloom Energy to develop renewable ammonia production at its existing facility in Pryor, Oklahoma. 30 MW of electrolysers will feed the production of 30,000 tonnes of renewable ammonia per year, with two electrolyser technologies (solid-oxide and alkaline) working side-by-side.
LSB Industries’ existing El Dorado ammonia production plant will be retrofitted to allow capture and sequestration of CO2 emissions as part of a new partnership with Lapis Energy. Once operational in 2025, more than 375,000 tonnes CCS ammonia will be produced per year - about 75% of El Dorado’s total ammonia production capacity. El Dorado becomes the third publicly announced CCS ammonia plant in the US, with CF Industries and Air Products announcing projects last year.