More than $37 billion will be invested across the initial stages of hydrogen and ammonia production projects, ranging in location from the Gulf of Suez to west of the Nile Delta. A series of agreements concerning existing and newly-announced projects were signed at the recent Egypt-EU Investment Conference.
Air Liquide will invest up to $850 million to build, own and operate four large air separation units as part of ExxonMobil’s low-carbon hydrogen project in Baytown, Texas. The units will provide nitrogen and oxygen feedstocks to ExxonMobil, which will be used to produce low-carbon hydrogen and ammonia.
Spain-based FRV will develop a new $5 billion renewable hydrogen and ammonia project at the Pecém Industrial and Port Complex. At full capacity, 1.6 million tons of ammonia per year will be produced. FRV is now one of six organisations that have signed agreements with the state government of Ceará to develop production projects.
The pair will explore a million-ton-per-year ammonia production plant at an undisclosed US location, based on CCS hydrogen production. The plant will be a “potentially important contributor” to INEOS Nitriles’ emission reduction targets, as ammonia is a key feedstock for acrylonitrile manufacturing.
Hydrom, Oman’s dedicated government development vehicle for low-carbon hydrogen, has awarded land to two projects. Actis and Fortescue will develop about 4.5 GW of wind and solar energy to power the production of more than 1 million ton tons of ammonia per year. With the same wind and solar energy capacity, EDF, J-Power and Yamna will develop a similarly-sized, 1 million ton per-year ammonia plant.
Hygenco will establish a 1.1 million tons per year renewable ammonia project in the Gopalpur Industrial Park. Hygenco recently commissioned the Steel One project, one of India’s first MW-scale, electrolytic hydrogen production plants.
CF Industries and JERA will work towards development of a 1.4 million tons per year, gas-based mega-project at CF’s planned Blue Point complex in Ascension Parish. JERA will explore a 48% ownership stake in the new project, with FID scheduled within a year. In Odisha, India, JERA will work with ReNew on the development of a renewables-based ammonia project.
With installation and testing of ammonia fuel equipment now complete, a 20% ammonia co-firing demonstration will proceed from April to June this year at the Hekinan power plant. JERA and IHI aim for commercial operations to begin around March 2025. JERA is also exploring part ownership and offtake from Exxon Mobil’s CCS ammonia mega-project in Baytown, Texas.
Discussions will commence for the supply, purchase, and sale of ammonia from two of CIP’s ongoing mega-projects - St. Charles in Louisiana and Murchison in Western Australia - to Lotte in South Korea. Meanwhile, Lotte has selected KBR’s synthesis technology for its hydro-ammonia production project in Malaysia.
CCS-based ammonia produced in the USA by Idemitsu, Mitsubishi and Proman is expected to hit the Japanese market by 2030, targeting multiple end uses.