OCI starting work on the largest blue ammonia facility in Texas

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Fertilizer producer OCI announced it has broken ground and is starting construction activities on what is planned to be the largest blue ammonia facility to come onstream in Texas.

OCI said the facility will be able to capture and undertake sequestration of up to 1.7m tonnes/year year of CO2  with the project on track for production to begin in 2025.

Total investment cost is expected to be below $1bn, including spending on upsized utilities and available land to allow for expanded capacity in the future.

The producer said the new facility will support around 60-80 new full-time jobs, as well as around 1,000 construction jobs at the peak of activities.

Currently site preparation work is nearly complete with construction activities commencing and the project received its air permit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on 1 December.

OCI said its plan is to upgrade blue hydrogen to produce blue ammonia, where over 95% of carbon emissions will be captured and sequestered. It said this project has been designed to transition from blue to green ammonia production in the future as green hydrogen becomes available at larger scale.

The project will be located adjacent to OCI’s existing integrated 1.4m tonnes/year ammonia and methanol production facility in Beaumont and 1.8m tonnes/year 50%-owned methanol joint venture Natgasoline.

OCI said the site will benefit from the significant and growing capabilities that exist in southeast Texas for blue and green ammonia and hydrogen production as the area already has existing hydrogen pipeline delivery infrastructure, hydrogen storage and industrial customers.

“The potential for clean ammonia to solve many of our global problems has become increasingly clear. It is not only an essential fertilizer that ensures food security for over 4bn people, low-carbon ammonia is a clean fuel that provides an ideal solution available today for hard-to-abate sectors such as power and shipping,” said Ahmed El-Hoshy, OCI CEO.

“This world-scale facility will be a significant part of that, resulting in a very significant reduction in carbon emissions equivalent to taking almost half a million cars off the road permanently. The potential here is great and I’m delighted that breaking ground today signifies we’re on track to deliver on that.”