CF Industries’ Board of Directors has approved a green ammonia project at the company’s flagship Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex to produce approximately 20,000 tons per year of green ammonia.

CF Industries is a leading global manufacturer of hydrogen and nitrogen products for clean energy, emissions abatement, fertilizer, and other industrial applications.

The company will install an electrolysis system at Donaldsonville to generate carbon-free hydrogen from water that will then be supplied to an existing plant to produce green ammonia. The cost of the initial project is expected to fit within the company’s annual capital expenditure budget, which has ranged from $400-$450 million per year.

Additionally, the company is developing CCS and other carbon abatement projects across its production facilities. The implementation of these projects will enable CF to produce low-carbon ammonia.

The company estimates that over time it could produce approximately 3.5 million tons of low-carbon ammonia per year—about one-third of its annual ammonia production capacity—without affecting its current product mix.

In order to execute these initiatives, CF is collaborating with leading technology companies, and has signed Memorandums of Understanding with ThyssenKrupp and Haldor Topsoe. The company is also in discussions with global utilities and maritime transportation providers that have announced their intention to use low-carbon ammonia directly as a fuel.

Industry experts project hydrogen will meet approximately 20% of the world’s energy need by 2050, up from less than 1% today. Ammonia, which is composed of three-parts hydrogen and one-part nitrogen, is a highly efficient transport and storage mechanism for hydrogen as well as a fuel in its own right.

The world’s largest ammonia producer, CF Industries says that its current asset base and technical expertise are well-situated to meet the anticipated demand for hydrogen and ammonia from green and low-carbon sources. The company’s approach will focus on green ammonia production (ammonia produced through a carbon-free process), and low-carbon ammonia (ammonia produced by conventional processes but with CO₂ removed through carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) and other certified carbon abatement projects).

Our existing scale and commitment to produce green and low-carbon ammonia establishes CF Industries as the clear leader in providing clean fuels for a sustainable world, while also providing a growth platform to drive long-term shareholder value.

—Tony Will, president and CEO, CF Industries