Section: CRUNS Industry News

Coal India Limited (CIL) says that it has executed a non-binding memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Private Limited (AMNS), to examine the use of syngas from a gasification facility which CIL would set up next to the ArcelorMittal’s Paradip pellet plant in Odisha state. The company says that it will be “exploring the possibility of utilising syngas produced from a coal gasification facility… coupled with CCUS.” The focus of the MoU will initially be to assess the technical, commercial, and implementation aspects of the project and to facilitate preparation of a preliminary feasibility report for evaluating project viability.

Maire Group subsidiary Tecnimont has been awarded a contract by Fértil Pampa SAU, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pampa Energia SA, for a large-scale fertilizer complex in Argentina. The facility will include a large-scale ammonia plant and two parallel ultra-low energy urea trains, each with its own granulation unit, with a combined capacity of 6,000 t/d (2.1 million t/a), making it the largest urea plant in Latin America by production. It will occupy an 80-hectare site within the Bahía Blanca Industrial Complex, in Buenos Aires province. The location is adjacent to Pampa’s existing power generation assets, benefiting from direct access to key infrastructure, including gas pipelines, high-voltage transmission lines, water intake systems, and a deep-water export port, enabling efficient logistics.

Algeria’s Sonatrach and the Algerian Fertilizers Company (AFC) on 12 August signed engineering, procurement and construction contracts with Italy’s Saipem and China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) for the first phase of the country’s Integrated Phosphate Project (PPI). The ceremony at Sonatrach’s Algiers headquarters was chaired by Hydrocarbons Minister Mohamed Arkab and attended by the Chinese and Italian ambassadors.

Woodside Energy has placed its newly operational Beaumont New Ammonia (BNA) plant in Texas under review. It is also abandoning $5 billion of planned investment in new energy projects.

Topsoe has signed a contract with international energy company Uniper, to deliver front end engineering and design (FEED) for the company’s NorthStarH2 e-methanol project in Östersund, Northern Sweden

Algeria and Oman have made a final investment decision to expand fertiliser production at the Algerian-Omani Fertiliser Company (AOA) plant in Arzew, in Algeria’s Oran province.

Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals (CFCL) commenced commercial production of technical ammonium nitrate at its Gadepan complex in Kota district, Rajasthan, on 20 August, the company confirmed in a stock exchange filing. The unit produces prilled high-density ammonium nitrate (HDAN) and has a capacity of 240,000 t/a. An integrated weak nitric acid plant at the same site has a capacity of 210,000 t/a and supplies the downstream unit. Larsen & Toubro executed the works on a lump-sum turnkey basis under a technology licence from Casale, it said.

Green methanol has begun to be shipped to Austria's OMV from the Solar Park Kasso plant. The plant is operated by a joint venture between Mitsui & Co., Ltd, with a 49% share, and renewable energy company European Energy A/S (51%). The plant, located in Kassø, southern Denmark, was inaugurated on 13 May 2025 and is based on hydrogen derived from solar electricity from the adjacent 304 MW Kassø Solar Park, which is then combined with biogenic CO2 and distilled to 99.9% purity, suitable for combustion engines and plastics production. The plant makes 42,000 t/a of green methanol.

Chinese power conglomerate Shanghai Electric has launched phase two of its Taonan wind-powered green hydrogen-based biomethanol plant in Jilin, aiming to scale up to 200,000 t/a.

NextChem, via its subsidiary MyRechemical, has been awarded a licensing, process design package (PDP) and engineering services contract by SKY Renewables Burdekin Pty Ltd, an Australian project development company focused on the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), for the syngas section of Project Lion, in North Queensland. The project will gasify locally available sugarcane […]