Houston Ship Channel to house large-scale blue ammonia plant
A cross-sectoral consortium is planning to build a 1.1 million mt/year blue ammonia plant on the Houston Ship Channel by 2027.
PHOTO: Aerial view of the Houston Ship Channel. Port of Houston
The consortium includes Japan-based INPEX Corporation French industrial gas supplier Air Liquide and US-based chemical company LSB Industries and terminal operator Vopak Moda Houston (Vopak).
The group selected Houston Ship Channel as the site for the facility following a feasibility study earlier this year.
Houston Ship Channel is a 50-mile man-made port for ocean-going vessels located between the Gulf of Mexico and Harris County, Texas, in the United States. According to Vopak, it is the second-largest petrochemical corridor in the world.
The plant will initially have 1.1 million mt/year of low-carbon blue ammonia production capacity, which can be expanded in the future.
Hydrogen produced from steam-reforming natural gas is combined with nitrogen in the air to produce grey ammonia. By capturing the carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted during this production process, grey ammonia is converted to blue ammonia.
It can reduce well-to-wake emissions by more than 90% compared to conventional fuels.
This project, which combines Air Liquide's reforming technology with carbon capture, aims to capture at least 95% of direct emissions from hydrogen production, equivalent to roughly 1.6 million mt/year of CO2, Vopak confirmed.
Vopak Moda will expand its existing ammonia terminal on the Houston Ship Channel for greater storage capacity.
The project initially intends to export most of its production capacity to Asia, Europe, and the US for use in power generation; however, the partners have also identified opportunities in the transportation sectors.
“The worldwide movement to decarbonize industry and transportation will drive strong global demand for low-carbon ammonia,” said a joint statement by Maria Ciliberti, president-US and Canada at Vopak and Jonathan Ackerman chief executive of Moda Midstream.
In a recent report, the International Energy Agency projected ammonia bunker demand will constitute 44% of total bunker demand by 2050. Furthermore, shipping experts predict that blue ammonia will dominate this bunker demand, since it is more cost-effective to produce than green ammonia or green methanol.
By Konica Bhatt
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