Fertz giant Yara to build green hydrogen demonstration plant in Norway

Richard Ewing

28-Jan-2022

LONDON (ICIS)–Yara on Friday teamed up with Linde Engineering for the construction and delivery of a green hydrogen demonstration plant at the fertilizer major’s ammonia production facility at Porsgrunn, Norway.

The project has been supported by a Norwegian kronor (NOK) 283m ($31.5m) grant from state-owned firm Enova.

It will demonstrate that ammonia produced using renewable energy can reduce the impact of carbon dioxide in fertilizer production, Oslo-headquartered Yara said.

Water electrolysis will produce green hydrogen to partially replace the hydrocarbon-based hydrogen production in Yara’s plant, using proton exchange membrane (PEM) technology.

It will be the second 24MW PEM electrolysis plant designed and constructed by Linde Engineering, with the first now being built at the Leuna Chemical Complex in Germany.

“The project aims to supply the first green ammonia products to the market as early as mid-2023, both as fossil-free fertilizers, as well as emissions-free shipping fuel,” said Magnus Ankarstrand, president of Yara Clean Ammonia.

“Green ammonia is the key to reducing emissions from world food production and long-distance shipping. With this project, we move from intention to actions together with Linde Engineering and local contractors.”

The plant will have an annual capacity of around 10,000 kg/day of hydrogen and will replace ethane as raw material in production, eliminating 41,000 tonnes/year of carbon dioxide emissions.

The electricity will be delivered from renewable energy sources to provide enough hydrogen to produce 20,500 tonnes/year of ammonia, which can be converted to 60,000-80,000 tonnes of green fertilizer, roughly five times the annual production of food grade wheat in Norway.

The project will be Yara’s first step towards decarbonisation of the ammonia industry.

“Given the growing demand from the fertilizer industry for green hydrogen, this plant is a step towards further upscaling and increasing the size of these projects worldwide,” commented John van der Velden, SVP global sales & technology, Linde Engineering.

($1 = NOK 9)

Yara’s Porsgrunn site is a key component of its global fertilizer supply chain. Photo courtesy of Yara

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