ACE – a joint venture between US project development group Clean Hydrogen Works, Denbury Carbon Solutions and shipping company Hafnia – is investing $7.5 billion in the project, which is expected to produce 7.2 million t/y of low-carbon ammonia.

The plant will be located in Ascension Parish, on the west bank of the Mississippi River, enabling direct access to the waterway. Hafnia will export the ammonia to emerging overseas energy markets, while Denbury will transport the captured CO₂ emissions through its pipeline network to a sequestration site for permanent storage.

“Low-carbon solutions are vital if we are to succeed with the energy transition, and this project will have a positive impact in leading the way for large-scale decarbonization of our global energy infrastructure,” said Peter Vang Christensen, Topsoe’s senior vice president technology.

A final investment decision on the project, which is expected to create 350 permanent, full-time jobs, is anticipated in 2024.

Topsoe is also providing engineering, procurement and fabrication services for a 50,000 t/y e-methanol plant in Norway. The project, called FlagshipOne and implemented by Danish renewable energy company Ørsted, aims to provide the methanol for use as a green fuel by the shipping industry.

According to the International Energy Agency’s net-zero scenario for 2050, the shipping industry needs to reduce its emissions by nearly 15% from 2021 to 2030.

“We believe that e-methanol will play a key role in bringing down the carbon emissions from the maritime industry, and alongside key partners like Topsoe, we’re working hard to make that vision come true,” said Anders Nordstrøm, chief operating officer at Ørsted P2X.

FlagshipOne will be built on the site of the Hörneborgsverket biomass-fired combined heat and power plant in Örnsköldsvik, northern Sweden, operated by Övik Energi. The e-methanol will be produced using renewable electricity and biogenic CO₂ captured from Hörneborgsverket.

Construction is scheduled to start in the spring of 2023 with the facility expected to start operations in 2025.

Ørsted took total ownership of FlagshipOne this month, by acquiring the remaining 55% stake in the project from original developer Liquid Wind, a Swedish alternative fuel company.

At the same time, Ørsted has taken a final investment decision on the project, which the company said will be its first commercial-scale Power-to-X facility and an important stepping stone toward its ambition of taking a leading position in renewable hydrogen and green fuels.

The Fredericia-based firm is also developing a 300,000 t/y e-methanol facility in the US Gulf Coast area – termed Project Star – and collaborating in the Green Fuels for Denmark project in Copenhagen.

Author: Elaine Burridge, Freelance Journalist