ExxonMobil will transport and permanently store the captured CO₂ in secure geologic storage that it owns in Vermilion Parish. CF Industries said the captured emissions will be equivalent to replacing roughly 700,000 gasoline-powered cars with electric vehicles.

“This landmark project represents large-scale, real-world progress on the journey to decarbonize the global economy,” said Dan Ammann, president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions. “ExxonMobil is providing a critical and scalable solution to reduce CO₂ emissions, and we’re ready to offer the same service to other large industrial customers in the state of Louisiana and around the world. We’re encouraged by the momentum we see building for projects of this kind.”

The move follows CF Industries’ investment of $200 million announced in May to build a CO₂ dehydration and compression facility at the Louisiana complex, which is due for completion in 2024.

“As we leverage proven carbon capture and sequestration technology, CF Industries will be first-to-market with a significant volume of blue ammonia. This will enable us to supply this low-carbon energy source to hard-to-abate industries that increasingly view it as critical to their own decarbonization goals,” said Tony Will, CF Industries president and CEO.

CF Industries expects to market up to 1.7 million t/y of blue ammonia. The company said demand for blue ammonia is expected to grow significantly as a decarbonized energy source, both for its hydrogen content and as a fuel itself, because ammonia’s components — nitrogen and hydrogen — do not emit carbon when combusted.

The ammonia producer is also currently implementing a green ammonia project at Donaldsonville, which is scheduled to go online in 2023. Thyssenkrupp is supplying a 20-megawatt electrolysis plant to produce green hydrogen, which CF Industries will integrate into existing ammonia synthesis loops to produce 20,000 t/y green ammonia.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist