US fertilizer developer Grannus has selected Denmark’s Haldor Topsoe to provide technology and engineering services for its ammonia plant to be built in Kern County, California. The plant will be the first ammonia unit to be built in California for more than 60 years and is designed to demonstrate Grannus’ patented, ultra-low NOx emission process. Capacity of the facility expected to be operational in 2019 has been pegged at 250 t/d. This is said to represent roughly 40% of California’s consumption of agricultural ammonia.

Haldor Topsoe will license its ammonia loop, shift catalyst and sulfur guard technologies for the production of high-purity ammonia. In addition, the Danish contractor will prepare process design packages for the hydrogen to ammonia process. “Collaborating with Haldor Topsoe in the development and delivery of our first plant validates our technological innovation and will enable accelerated worldwide adoption due to their market leadership in ammonia technology,” commented Matthew Cox, CEO of Grannus.

The company has also engaged Air Liquide Global E&C Solutions to provide engineering services for the production of hydrogen as part of the ammonia project. Under the agreement, the Air Liquide subsidiary will license the Lurgi GasPOX technology and associated gas clean-up technologies, including a pressure swing adsorption unit to produce the high-purity hydrogen required to make the ammonia. The contractor will also prepare the process design packages for the natural gas to hydrogen process.

Chad Briggs, vice president of sales and technology at the Air Liquide subsidiary, said the company believes the technology has potential in many markets worldwide. Headquartered in Tucson, Arizona, Grannus was formed in 2012 to develop and bring to market next-generation ammonia fertilizer production technology. Its patented Eureaka process, claimed to create synthesis gas at the lowest emissions level in the industry, will replace the traditional steam methane reformer with a more efficient partial oxidation boiler.

According to Grannus, the process also has significant environmental advantages as it reduces, and in some cases eliminates, the greenhouse gas emissions from traditional fertilizer production methods. In addition, the distributed and scalable size of the process means the plant can be built closer to farmers, reducing the need for extensive transportation and improving its environmental footprint.

The fertilizer producer said it intends to increase plant capacity designs to world-scale and expand into adjacent markets, including hydrogen, methanol and other downstream chemicals.